The Inland Mine as a starting point

One of these days (?!?), I'm going to organize, index and pull together with new posts scattered pieces I've written about the coal industry that dominated northeast Lucas County from 1900 onward until World War II.

This postcard view from the museum collection is of Inland Mine No. 1, located two miles northeast of Chariton, and would be among the starting points. It's a colorized version of a photograph taken soon after 1913, when the mine was beginning to operate at full capacity.

The mine was called Inland because it was developed by the Inland Coal Co., organized in 1897 by William Haven --- the father of all phases of mining in Lucas County. 

The first shaft was dug in 1901 and was fully operational by 1902, but this was a smaller-scale operation until 1913 when the north-south Rock Island (now Union Pacific) tracks were built through the county.

A spur to the mine then allowed coal to be transported by rail. The huge steel tipple was built in 1913 so that cars could be loaded conveniently as production soared.

By 1921, this operation was considered mined out, the mine was closed and everything that could be disassembled and moved to other mines was. While this was not the mine located closest to Chariton during the county's coal mining years, it was the first --- and the largest.

From Croatia to Chariton: Mike Shragol's story

The tiny village of Begovo Razdolje, high in the Dinaric Alps and home to some 48 souls (as of 2011), is sometimes called the top of Croatia. Located not too far inland from the Adriatic and tucked into the northwest corner of this small Balkan nation, it is the highest occupied settlement in it.

So the geographical contrast between Mike Shragol's hometown and his final resting place in Chariton's Calvary Cemetery could hardly be greater. But because Mike left Begovo Razdolje when he was only 16 and lived in Lucas County for more than 50 years, Iowa's was the landscape he knew best.

Begovo Razdolje, Croatia.

Mr. Shragol's story is similar in several ways to hundreds of Lucas County immigrant narratives that could be told if those who lived them had just written them down --- or if their descendants could remember them.

We know a good deal of Mike's story because he was a gregarious sort who shared his story widely at various times --- when reporters for the various Chariton newspapers were present. The following is pieced together from several of those reports, the first published in 1922; the last, during 1968, when he died at the age of 77 and was buried at Calvary.

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Mike was born Sept. 29, 1891, in the village of Begovo Razdolje to Andrew and Mary Shragol.  "Shragol" is not the family name, but rather an anglicized version of it, adopted after he left Ellis Island in 1909, headed for the Midwest. Mike never married and his only relatives in the United States were cousins, so I've not been able to recover the original version of his surname.

 Andrew Shragol died when his newborn son was a month old. According to Mike, Andrew had emigrated to the United States a couple of years earlier, intending to send eventually for his family, and somehow ended up in Spokane, Washington. He was working there when his health failed and managed to make it home to his mountain village, but died approximately a year later.

After five years of public education, Mike was apprenticed to a cabinet maker and learned that trade, but could not find work that payed a reasonable wage once his three-year term of service was completed.

So during May of 1908, Mr. Shragol and a fellow 16-year-old left Croatia behind, looking for work --- and perhaps adventure. Arriving in Vienna during June, the young men found jobs but also became aware that if they remained in Austria they were likely to be conscripted into the military.

As a result, they decided to emigrate, traveled from Austria to Cherbourg, France, and during early 1909 booked steerage passage on the liner St. Louis, arriving at Ellis Island during the spring, perhaps late April. Mike traveled west immediately, to Canton, Illinois, where his only relatives in the United States --- and aunt and cousins --- were living.

Unable to speak English but with a strong back, Mike found work in the Canton-area coal mines. When reports of better working conditions and higher wages farther west in Iowa reached Canton, he came to Iowa's legendary Buxton and found a mining job there. In 1913, he moved west again and went to work in the new Central Iowa Fuel Co. Mine No. 1, two miles north of Chariton.

Still restless, Mike headed east to Pittsburgh in 1916 and went to work in the steel mills there, but discovered that he preferred life in the mines and returned to Lucas County after World War I ended, living in both Williamson and Chariton and finding work easily as the Central Iowa Fuel Co. expanded its operations and opened more mines in northeast Lucas County.

But by 1922 and now over 30, as Mike told the story, he had had enough of the mines. Early that year, he took a suit that needed alteration into a shop on the west side of the square operated by Will C. Ruth, a tailor. Ruth was interested in expanding his business to include a dry cleaning operation and invited Mike to join him. The two men formed a partnership, Ruth & Shragol, and prospered with Will handling the tailoring end of the operation and Mike, the dry cleaning. They eventually named the operation Paramount Cleaners and operated it together until 1927 when Ruth sold his interest to Mike and moved his family to Kansas City.

After three years of solo operation, Mike formed a new partnership with Dee Batten in 1930, a partnership that lasted until 1936 when Batten was appointed Chariton postmaster. After that, Mike continued as sole owner --- for 24 years, until retirement in 1960.

Mike became active in the city he now called home, joining the volunteer fire department, Rotary and other organizations. And he continued to invest in the latest equipment for his business, making sure it offered state of the art service.

Following retirement during July of 1960, Mike began serious planning for his first trip back to his native Croatia --- now part of Tito's Yugoslavia --- in 50 years. He traveled from Chariton to New York City by train, then set sail for Europe on Sept. 15 aboard the SS Saturnia. Because everyone in Chariton knew Mike and he had shared his story and his plans widely, there was considerable interest among his friends and neighbors in the trip.

Mike always had maintained contact with his family in Croatia and was met in Trieste by the sister he hadn't seen in 50 years, her husband and two children, one of whom was a physician. The traveled for eight hours by train in order to reach Zagreb, the Croatian capital, where they lived. Later on, Mike and his sister traveled together to Begovo Razdolje to visit their brother, who scratched out a living on 35 acres --- now government-owned --- near the village.

Mike returned to Chariton during December, grateful he said to be home, and shared accounts of his travels with various civic groups. Would he consider returning to Croatia to live? "Never," he said.

During early December, 1968, Mike was injured in a one-car crash on the Melcher road and hospitalized at the then new Lucas County Memorial Hospital. When that hospital was in the planning stage, he had made a $1,000 donation to the hospital foundation in honor of his father, Andrew.

He died of complications from internal injuries on Dec. 9, 1968, at the age of 77. After funeral services at Beardsley Funeral Home, friends then carried his remains to their final resting place in Calvary Cemetery.

Woody trumps Trump: Those "Mean Talking Blues"

I do love me some Woody Guthrie (1912-1967), but who knew at the time he recorded "Mean Talking Blues" in 1945 that this giant in American folk music could see into the future and analyze  so precisely the character of that sad little man currently in the White House.

For a brief moment this morning, I thought about including an image of the president here --- but decided against it. If you'd like to gaze into those porcine blinkers while listening, plenty of images are available via a Google search.

What a friend we have in reason (good works, too)

Writer Anne Lamott, a Presbyterian herself, is responsible for my favorite religion-related quip: "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates the same people you do."

Which is related indirectly to this billboard, erected (during 2010 I believe) in Christchurch, New Zealand. Then as now, such sentiments generate a lot of squawking, posturing and flapping of wings among some believers.

I'm not suggesting that one shouldn't practice a faith that incorporates belief in some sort of  overriding creative force if that helps to float your boat, only that it's useful to remember that religion begins with the human need to explain what seems to be inexplicable. And that the varying understandings of what a "god" is begin there.

And that science and reason --- not to mention love and compassion --- are useful tools, too, when faced with primitive terror of the unknown and the impulse to create a formula to deal with it.

The gentleman after whom Christianity is named preached that right action is important, a theme expanded upon in James 2:14-17 --- "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,  and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,' and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead."

Now Martin Luther and other protestant reformers just hated James and would joyfully have purged him from the canon had they been able to figure out a way to do so. Having to live one's faith is so darned inconvenient. But they couldn't, so those words remain to plague believers toward right action.

All this came to mind while reading this weekend about the flurry in South Dakota schools resulting from action during the last session of that state's legislature --- a law that requires "In God We Trust" to be posted on the walls of all public schools. There's similar activity in Kentucky and other places where evangelical Christians are running scared.

But can you imagine anything deader than a slogan mandated by a government and plastered on a wall?

Man overboard: The death of C.E. "Ed" Penick

"Penick" once was a name to be conjured with in Lucas County although none remain. William C. Penick (1827-1914), of the firm Manning & Penick, was a pioneer merchant. His sons included  James A. Penick, lawyer, politician and orator, and William B. Penick, banker, farmer and entrepreneur.

But prominence did not guarantee against tragedy, and the most dramatic of the latter claimed the life of another brother, Charles Edwin "Ed" Penick, who drowned at age 36 after falling from a deck of the steamer Virginia at Racine, Wisconsin, during the early morning of July 26, 1901, while on a pleasure cruise from Chicago to Milwaukee.

Ed was at the time cashier of the family bank and in the process of building a grand new home for his family in the Spring Lake Subdivision (along South 8th Street south of the railroad tracks), married to Lizzie (Yengel) Penick with two young children, and prominent in city affairs, including its school board and numerous lodges. He had been accompanied to Chicago --- and on the cruise --- by Oran Alonzo Hougland, his architect; and Henry F. Brown, prominent bachelor farmer of Lincoln Township.

Although a Racine coroner's jury ruled the death accidental, there was a good deal of sensational reporting about it in Chicago and Racine newspapers at the time and varying accounts of the details surrounding his fatal plunge. Chariton's three newspapers --- The Patriot, The Herald and The Democrat --- were left to sort out the details from a distance and publish the results (at great length) in their editions of Aug. 1, 1901 (the three newspapers all published on Thursday).

I've picked the report published in The Patriot in large part because it relies heavily on the testimony of O.A. Hougland, who was present at the time although he did not witness the plunge. The report was published under a three-deck headline --- "Ed. Penick Drowned; Falls Overboard from Boat in Racine Harbor; Terrible Accident Happens While on a Pleasure Trip to Milwaukee. Was Asleep on Deck and Was Startled by Boat's Whistle. Efforts to Save Him were Unsuccessful."

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Telegrams were received by relatives and friends in this city last Friday stating the Charles Edwin Penick, cashier of the Chariton Bank, who had gone to Chicago on business, had been drowned in the harbor at Racine, Wisconsin. This was sad news to his many friends here. It was reported that he had committed suicide, but that was not believed by his friends and acquaintances, for he would have no cause whatsoever for committing such an act. He was in perfect health, his family relations were pleasant and congenial, and his business affairs were in fine condition. It is quite evident from the testimony given by a traveling man, Mr. McBride, of Warsaw, Wisconsin, who saw him go overboard, that Mr. Penick was asleep near the railing on the upper deck and was startled by the blowing of the whistle for the harbor, which caused him to jump and pitch over the railing.

In an interview with O.A. Hougland, architect, who accompanied Mr. Penick for the purpose of assisting him in buying fixtures for his new residence, he told us the following:

"Mr. Penick wanted me to go to Chicago to assist him in buying the hardware, mantles, floor, etc., for his new house. He had several cars of stock ready for shipment, so got me a pass to Chicago with his stock. Mr. Penick, myself and H.F. Brown of Lincoln township, who also had a shipment of cattle, left Chariton Tuesday morning, July 23, at 9:30 on a stock train with seven cars of stock.

"Mr. Penick had been losing considerable sleep on account of sickness in his family, so when we reached Burlington he said, 'I'll go on to Chicago on No. 6 and get some sleep and meet you at the hotel in the morning,' and gave us the name of a hotel near the stockyards.

"We arrived in Chicago and went to the hotel about 4 o'clock a.m. Penick got up about 6 o'clock and we all took breakfast together. We then went to the stockyards where we spent most of the day and sold all of the stock. In the evening we went downtown and stayed all night at the American House on State and 16th Street. The next morning (Thursday) we started out and went to the Hoop & Ludwig Mantle Co. where Mr. Penick purchased two mantles and tile flooring. Mr. Brown left us there and returned to the stockyards.

"From there we went to the E.A. Hartwell Co. to see about his stairs, and from there to J. Dunfee & Co. to look after parquet flooring. It was then about 2 o'clock p.m. We then went back to the stockyards to see his commission men. Ed said, 'I don't want any dinner,' so I ate my dinner at the hotel and met him afterwards in the Commission office. Brown was there also. From there we went to the Rehm Hardware Co. on Blue Island Avenue. There he bought the hardware for his house.

"About 5 o'clock we returned to the American House and changed our clothes. At about 8 o'clock p.m. we went down to the wharf. At 9 we boarded the boat for a pleasure trip to Milwaukee. Supper was served at 10:30. After that, we were separated for a while. About midnight I met Brown on the promenade. We walked around to the stern of the boat and found Ed sitting on a stool, asleep. We woke him up, and all went down into the hold of the boat to see if we could get berths, but could not as they all were taken. We looked at the engine for a few minutes and Ed sat down on a chair. Brown and I went up into the state room and laid down on the floor. That was when we were about three and a half hours out of Chicago and was the last we knew about him until we reached Milwaukee.

"He undoubtedly went up in the bow of the boat onto the promenade and sat down on one chair, put his feet on another and went to sleep. Mr. McBride, a traveling man from Warsaw, Wisconsin, saw him in that position and asleep. McBride said, 'After we entered the harbor at Racine the whistles blew. This startled Penick; he jumped as if shot, pitched over the railing and fell into the water, which at that place is 35 feet deep. He was undoubtedly asleep and did not know what he was doing. When he struck the water he cried for help twice. The watch on the boat threw him a stool. The captain lowered a boat from the vessel and then called to the live saving crew at a pier 500 feet distant. They immediately shot a boat out into the water to rescue him, but it had been raining and was quite dark and they could not see him.'

"We did not know anything about the accident until we reached Milwaukee about 5 o'clock Friday morning as they did not make much noise about it. When we arrived we began to look for Penick but could not find him. We then went to the purser, to see if he had succeeded in procuring a berth. He said no, but that there was a man overboard at Racine, 300 feet from land, and gave a description, which fit Mr. Penick. I boarded the 9 o'clock a.m. train for Racine, arriving there at 9:30, leaving Brown at Milwaukee. I identified Penick's hat, which had been picked up on the water and immediately telegraphed his relatives in this city. I also telephoned Brown, and he arrived in Racine about 11 a.m. In the meantime, his purse was picked up out of the water in the harbor. the contents were a $10 bill, a note given to Penick by Scott Richmond, and a receipt on an insurance policy, carried on the life of J.S. Howard.

"We immediately offered a reward of $100 for his body, and five or six boats dragged the harbor until 5 o'clock. Then we secured experts with dynamite, who made several heavy charges up and down the harbor.

"The report that we had been drinking is utterly false."

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Hon. F.Q. Stuart, a brother-in-law of Mr. Penick, left on No. 4 the same day for Racinie. Hon. J.A. Penick, a brother of the deceased, went to Racine the following day. They offered a reward of $300 for the finding of the body and did all they could, but to no avail. Mr. Penick came home Monday, as he could do nothing more than was already being done by the authorities and the different lodges of which deceased was a member.

A telegram was received Tuesday evening stating that the body had been found at 6:15 that evening about the same place where it went down. Simon Press and O.A. Hougland went to Chicago the same evening and identified the body.

The remains were brought to Chariton today on No. 3 at 10 a.m. and taken immediately to the home of his father, W.C. Penick, where a brief service was held, conducted by Rev. W.V. Whitten of the Episcopal church and Rev. W.B. Thompson of the M.E. church, a cousin of the deceased. The services were then taken in charge by the Knights Templar and the body was interred in the Chariton cemetery beside his brothers, Fred, who was drowned in a cistern when a child, McClelland and Haller.

The pall bearers were J.E. Lockwood, E.W. Drake, Will A. Eikenberry, J.A. Campbell, Bert Beem, Earnest Gasser, all brother knights. The funeral was one of the most largely attended ever held in Chariton.

Mr. Penick was 35 years old and had lived in Chariton all his life. He was a member of the Chariton School Board and an honorary member of the Chariton Fire Department, and a member of the following lodges: Knights Pythias, Masonic, Modern Woodmen, Independent Order of United Workmen and Macabees.

In 1894 he was married to Miss Lizzie Yengel, who with their two children, Dorothy and Calvin, are left to mourn their irreparable loss. His wife and mother are almost prostrated by their great grief.

Ed Penick as he was familiarly known all over the country, was a general favorite with all his acquaintances, both rich and poor. He was a capable, thorough businessman and always had a pleasant word for all whom he met. he was genial, kind hearted and generous almost to a fault. He will be sadly missed by all his friends and acquaintances, to whom he had endeared himself by his congenial and happy manner.

The citizens of Chariton and Lucas county are mourning with the bereaved families in their deep sorrow. May the Father of Mercies pour into their broken hearts sweet peace and resignation.

Mayor Alexander issued a request in response to a well defined public sentiment that the businessmen of our city close their places of business from 10:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. today out of respect to our lamented fellow citizen. The request was complied with by most of our businessmen.

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A substantial life insurance policy was among Ed Penick's considerable assets, so his widow, Lizzie, lived in comfort in Chariton until her own death 30 years later at the age of 62. Son Calvin, in business in Chariton for a number of years and then a resident of Tucson, Arizona, and Des Moines, died at the age of 91 in 1989. He had no children. Daughter Dorothy married Hal Larimer and lived and died in St. Louis.

Many years later, the remains of Dorothy's daughter, Berthenia L. Cleminson (1921-2004) were brought from Michigan and buried with her grandparents in the Chariton Cemetery.

"Wake Now My Senses ...."

I'm listening this morning to a favorite from the Unitarian Universalist hymnal ("Singing the Living Tradition") entitled "Wake Now My Senses," appropriate for these turbulent times of collective angst ---- or any other.

The author of the words is a native Iowan, the Rev. Thomas J.S. Mikelson, who served as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City from 1971-1983, then moved to New England. He retired during 2006 as minister of First Parish, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The tune is traditionally Irish and most often referred to as "Slane" when associated with a hymn, most notably "Be Thou My Vision."

The performer is unidentified except as "ExJW," which stands for Ex-Jehovah's Witness, but it is a crisp and clear presentation. Here are the Rev. Mr. Mikelson's words:

Wake, now, my senses,  and hear the earth call;

Feel the deep power of being in all; 

Keep, with the web of creation your vow,

Giving, receiving as love shows us how. 

Wake, now my reason, reach out to the new; 

Join with each pilgrim who quests for the true; 

Honor the beauty and wisdom of time;

Suffer thy limit, and praise the sublime.

Wake, now, compassion, give heed to the cry; 

Voices of suffering fill the wide sky;

Take as your neighbor both stranger and friend,

Praying and striving their hardship to end. 

Wake, now, my conscience, with justice thy guide

Join with all people whose rights are denied;

Take not for granted a privileged place;

God’s love embraces the whole human race. 

Wake, now, my vision of ministry clear; 

Brighten my pathway with radiance here;

Mingle my calling with all who will share; 

Work toward a planet transformed by our care.

The corpses in the trunk at the depot

There was considerable trepidation in the baggage room of Chariton's C.B. & Q. Depot on the  morning of Friday, Feb. 5, 1904, as authorities --- including the mayor armed with a search warrant --- prepared to prise open a large trunk to determine why a foul odor was emanating from it.

The smell had been intensifying since the trunk had arrived in Chariton from Seattle on Wednesday and the time finally had come to discover the horrible truth, or at least to determine if worst fears would be realized.

The outcome merited the following front-page story in The Chariton Herald of Thursday, Feb. 11, under the following headline: "Dead Body Found in Trunk: Chariton Officers Make a Gruesome Find in a Stranger's Trunk in the Baggage Room."

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Chariton had a sensation and a tragedy all in one last Friday morning, in a find that was made in the baggage room of the C.B. & Q. depot of this city. The horrible mystery has not yet been fully explained, but enough of it has leaked out to put it on record as one of the most sensational discoveries that the officers here have ever made.

The climax of the discovery came about ten o'clock on Friday morning, although the officers had had suspicions for a day or two before that. An ordinary trunk had come to the baggage room Wednesday before, from Seattle, and no one had come to claim it. Nothing particular was thought of the matter until the city officers, happening in the baggage room often as they do, noticed a peculiar odor emanating from the trunk.

Each hour, seemingly, the stench became stronger, whereupon the officers spoke to each other of their suspicions, and the fearful fact became fixed in their minds that the trunk contained a dead body, and was perhaps the culmination of some murder mystery. The fact that the trunk had come from Seattle made the theory seem all the more plausible, and after waiting until Friday morning for the trunk to be claimed and taken away, the officers determined to investigate the matter.

Mayor Bowen was sent for at 4 o'clock a.m., and he advised the officers to open and search the trunk. Accordingly, the baggage room was closed and guarded from the inside after all loiterers had been excluded, and a search warrant was produced giving authority for the search.

The lock resisted their efforts for a while, but they finally succeeded in picking it, and turned back the lid. The awful odor then almost overpowered them, and though there was nothing but clothing to be seen on top, they felt absolutely certain that a dead body in a state of advanced decomposition would be the gruesome sight that would meet their gaze when they removed the top layer of clothing.

And sure enough, when the bravest of those present finally mustered up courage enough to lift off a bunch of lingerie and a dress or two, there lay a corpse --- four large, juicy looking lobsters, spoiled beyond all hope of cooking, with their claws pressed out of shape by the clothing in which they had been wrapped, and their bodies reeking with the odor that that attracted the suspicions of the officers and led to the investigation.

It was learned that the trunk belonged to Miss Orpha Fox, who had come from Seattle, Wash., for a visit with her sister, Mrs. Fred Wood. She had put a few fresh lobsters in her trunk but it was so long in transit that the varmints decomposed, with the sensational results above described. The question now is, is the joke on Miss Fox or on the city officials?

Lloyd Courter: Pioneer skydiver (sort of, 1902)

This is a photo of Chariton's Tunis and Jennie Courter family, taken it's thought about 1910, with the daring Lloyd, now in his mid-30s and established as a cigar merchant in Sacramento, at right in the back row.

Born in 1875 in Chariton and an 1893 graduate of Chariton High School, Lloyd had bounced around his hometown for a few years before heading west. Among other things, he was a volunteer firefighter, operator of the Maine restaurant and, upon occasion, accused of selling intoxicating beverages illegally.

But he made his mark in Chariton when he was 27, during early August 1902, when in response to a dare and a few bets he roped himself to a trapeze bar attached to a hot-air balloon, ascended to a considerable height, cut himself loose and floated to a graceful landing in J.L. Brown's small pasture northeast of the square.

If not Chariton's first homegrown skydiver, he surely must have been among the earliest.

Here's how The Chariton Herald reported the event in its edition of Aug. 7, 1902:

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The balloon ascension last Saturday afternoon was a sensation in more ways than one. Instead of the regular aeronaut, John Reed, going up with the big gas bag and dropping into the canvass sun shade, Lloyd Courter, of the Maine restaurant, in response to a bluff from his friends and to win a few side bets, swung himself off the surface of the earth seated on the trapeze stick.

When the big balloon sailed skyward, ascending a half mile more or less, almost straight up, he then, at the signal of a shot fired from below, cut himself loose from the balloon, dropped for a couple of hundred feet at the rate of a couple of million miles a second, and then, his parachute catching the wind, he rode safely and gracefully to earth and landed in J. L. Brown's pasture northeast of the square.

Lloyd declares that he was not in the least nervous before, during or after his perilous feat. He had his heart tested just before the balloon started and it was found to be beating at its usual rate. When the great height was being reached, the amateur cloud-rider says he was as cool as if standing on solid ground. Only during the first dash of the parachute toward the earth did he feel scared, and after the parachute began its regular descent, he recovered his breath and landed safe and sound, escaping the pond in the pasture by little more than a rod.

Counting the amount subscribed for him, the bets he won, etc., Courter cleared about $31 by his feat. The chances were great, but he escaped safely, and is now receiving congratulations on his nerve and beautiful ascension. His parents did not know that he was to make the ascent, or they would have objected so strenuously that he would no doubt have backed out. He was lashed to the trapeze by a stout rope snapped to his belt, so that if he should get dizzy and fall off he would still be held up until the balloon came down.

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In California, Lloyd married Helen Gallaher and they had two children, Clifford (1914-1989) and Maybelle (1917-1921). Helen died during 1927 at the age of 51; Lloyd, on April 10, 1948. All are buried in Sacramento.

Justice askew: The murder of young Ruth Campbell

Ruth Campbell, daughter of James A. and Nina Campbell, was only 14 when a jealous boyfriend some five years her senior, Walter Ralston, shot her in the chest outside his home in north Chariton on night of Aug. 2, 1904.

This was the sort of thing that didn't happen is the "good" families of Chariton. James Campbell was a well-connected attorney who had edited The Chariton Leader for some years before switching professions and launching what was described as a very promising career in his hometown. Walter was the son of Sam Ralston, a highly respected conductor on the trains traversing the southern branch  of the C.B.&Q. between Chariton and St. Joseph, Missouri.

So naturally there was considerable shock and gossip about the tragedy was confirmed when The Chariton Leader published the following in its edition of Thursday, Aug. 4:

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One of those terrible events which newspapers are sometimes compelled to chronicle occurred in this city on Tuesday night and as a result a young man is languishing in jail awaiting trial for the terrible deed while a young girl of only 14 years is lying at her home with a bullet in her body and hovering between life and death.

As near as can be ascertained the facts are as follows: Young Ruth Campbell in company with Rex Rethereford, and accompanied by another young man and woman, had driven to Lucas on Tuesday evening, returning home about 11:30. Miss Campbell got out of the carriage about a block from home and started to walk the rest of the way while her companion took the team to the livery barn. She had taken but a few steps when she met Walter Ralston, with whom she had been keeping company for some time. He asked her to take a walk and they went several blocks, going to his father's residence near North Park.

When they got in front of the house, young Ralston went in and got a revolver and came out and fired two shots at Miss Campbell, one of the bullets striking her in the breast, just above and a little to the left of the waist line, and passing through the left lung. It went straight through and lodged in the fleshy part of the back.

S.B. Ralston, the young man's father, was awakened by the shots and ran out to the gate in time to prevent his son from committing suicide, as the latter had turned the revolver on himself with the intention of ending his own life. Mr. Ralston took the weapon away from his son and then turned his attention to Miss Campbell, who had gone into the Ralston home seeking the protection of the young man's mother.

She was apparently but little hurt and the parents of young Ralston compelled him to accompany her home. She walked the entire distance, about six blocks, and walked into the dining room where her mother was sitting, exclaiming "Mamma I have been shot."

Mrs. Campbell was horrified but at once accompanied her daughter to the latter's room upstairs where the girl disrobed and an examination of the wound was made. Mrs. Campbell was at home alone with two younger children, and they were speedily aroused and sent for medical assistance.

On the way they met the night watchman, Hans Beck, who accosted them and learning of their mission he assisted in summoning Drs. A.L. Yocom and T.P. Stanton, and then went to the Campbell home where he learned the particulars of the story. He then went to the jail and aroused Sheriff Boss and together they went to the Ralston home where they found Walter in bed, he having made no attempt to escape after accompanying Ruth to her home.

He was taken to the jail where he now awaits preliminary hearing which will be held Saturday before Mayor Bowen. He will probably waive examination.

What passed between the two before the shooting took place is not known as neither one has made any statement. It is said that the young man was under the influence of morphine and had also been drinking and was jealous because Miss Campbell had been out driving with another young man, and had committed the deed while in a frenzied condition. But whatever the motive he will probably have to pay a heavy penalty for the terrible crime.

Miss Campbell passed a comfortable night and as we go to press is resting easy. The bullet is still in her body but the physicians think that it will not cause any serious trouble. It may have penetrated the stomach as it passed through her body and if it did there is some danger of peritonitis. Pneumonia may also result from the wound to the left lung; but if nothing develops from the injuries she will probably recover and her many friends earnestly hope that this will be the case.

Ruth Campbell is the daughter of Attorney J.A. Campbell and wife who have resided in Chariton for a number of years, although Mr. Campbell is now in Kansas City where he has been practicing law for several months. Walter Ralston is about 19 years of age and is a son of Conductor and Mrs. S.B. Ralston. The relatives of both Miss Campbell and Mr. Ralston, who are grief stricken over the terrible affiar, have the deepest sympathy of the entire community.

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As it turned out, young Ralston did not pay a "heavy" penalty for his crime, so far as the law was concerned at least. He was jailed immediately and charged with assault in an attempt to commit murder, but as Ruth's wound apparently healed the case against him was carried forward and during December, he was released on $1,500 bond. During January, when it appeared that Ruth would recover completely, charges were dropped.

In the meantime, James and Nina Ralston moved their family --- including Ruth --- to Kansas City where he had established what promised to be a flourishing practice. But during March of 1905, Ruth took a sudden turn for the worse and died, as reported upon as follows in The Chariton Patriot of March 23:

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The gun shot wound received by Ruth Campbell at the hands of Walter Ralston August 2 last resulted in the girl's death Tuesday night at her home, 1121 Harriston Street, Kansas City, Mo.

Miss Campbell had apparently recovered from the wound when the family moved from Chariton. For the past two weeks, however, she had been under the care of her physician. About 12:30 o'clock Tuesday night the girls mother heard her gasping for breath and, when she reached her daughter's bedside, found her dead. It is said that an ulcer which developed in the wound affected her heart. She was only 15 years old.

On the night of August 2, Walter Ralston, jealous and enraged because the girl had received attentions from other boys, fired the shot which resulted in the death of his girl sweetheart. The crime was committed in the yard of the Ralston home. He was arrested and placed in jail. An indictment against him followed, but the case was dropped because the girl and her parents refused to prosecute. It was thought she would recover.

Mr. Campbell moved his family from Chariton to Kansas City last fall. He has a law office in the New York Life building.

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Young Ruth was buried in a Kansas City cemetery near her new home and while consideration was given to charging Walter Ralston again now that her death had occurred, the family applied no pressure to do so and the county attorney declined, so the youthful killer apparently was free and clear.

In the years that followed, the Campell family endured another tragedy when Ruth's younger brother, James Hayden Campbell, died of typhoid at the age of 17 during 1908 while attending school in Springfield, Missouri. His remains were returned to Chariton for burial in a grave that has remained unmarked.

These tragedies had strained the marriage of James and Nina Campbell and they were divorced. James then moved from Kansas City to Chicago, remarried and established another law practice.

The Ralstons, meanwhile, had moved from Chariton to the St. Joseph end of Sam's route as a conductor on the south branch and by 1915, Walter was living with them again and working as a cook in St. Joe. Whatever devils had been plaguing him overwhelmed him on Sunday, Jan. 10, he died by suicide. The following report appeared in The Herald-Patriot of January 14:

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Conductor Sam Ralston and family, of St. Joseph, Mo., will have the sympathy of many Chariton friends in the death of their son, Walter, which occurred at the hospital in St. Joe on Sunday morning. About a week before, he drank a quantity of carbolic acid with suicidal intent, and lived until Sunday morning when he quietly passed away. The family lived in Chariton several years ago and will be well remembered here.

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There was one more tragedy in store for the players in this sad drama.

James A. Campbell had by now established himself as an attorney of considerable promise with offices on an upper floor of the Hartford Building in downtown Chicago.

On the morning of July 19, 1917, James entered the elevator en route to his office. Having reached his floor and mid-stride through the open elevator door, the elevator operator somehow miscalculated at its controls and the car shot upward. 

James A. Campbell was crushed to death instantly.

A Winnebago County story: "Henry Dodge and Sister"

I'm going to shift the scene this morning from Lucas County in the far south of Iowa to Winnebago County, in the north, in order to tell you a poignant story of the immigrant experience and loss involving Henry Dodge, "Sister" and a Norwegian farmer and carpenter named Tonnes Mortenson.

Long before there was a "Lucas Countyan," called after my native land, I was by adoption a Winnebago Countyan. And while living in that magnificent landscape --- vast swells and flatlands of corn and soybeans occupying what once was tallgrass prairie and marshland punctuated by occasional islands of native timber --- I absorbed by osmosis a degree of Norwegian. To the point that when startled today, rather than cuss I still say "uff da!"

My first job after Vietnam was as a reporter and advertising salesman for The Forest City Summit, then I moved to the small town of Thompson where for quite a few years I edited two small weeklies, The Thompson Courier and The Rake Register. My associates were a distinguished spinster with a formidable memory and considerable story-telling talent named LaVae Lillebo, Ellen Olson, who sold advertising, and the remarkable Rosella Erdahl, our Rake correspondent. Rosella's mother had been a Rake, so she was part of the fabric of that small town almost on the Minnesota line.

My favorite exercise route during the years I lived in Thompson included Rose Hill Cemetery, something of an island rising from a sea of corn and beans in the southwest corner of town. Naturally, I examined tombstones and took an interest in those who rested there, many of whom were immigrants from Norway and their descendants.

It was on one of those walks that I first noticed the small bronze plaque inscribed "Henry Dodge and Sister" mounted on a concrete base on the bluff at the south end of the original cemetery. Intrigued, I decided to find out more and chased both Henry and "sister" down in back files of The Courier.

At the time, I was living in a big old house in Thompson that had been built near the turn of the 20th century by Tonnes Mortenson, a farmer and carpenter, and his wife, Sarah Gerhardine Rebekka Osmundsdatter Sviland.

Tonnes was born during 1865 in Norway, had immigrated to the United States in 1885, when he was 20, and settled in Winnebago County some years later. He married Sarah, also a native of Norway, during November of 1890 and they prospered at Thompson --- but had no children. 

Sarah died during 1937 and, in old age, Tonnes moved from Thompson to Minot, North Dakota, where nieces and nephews lived. He died there in 1961 at the age of 96. My associate, LaVae, remembered Tonnes --- she had gone to work for the Thompson newspaper not long after graduating from high school --- and enjoyed telling tales of his frugality.

As the years passed and Tonnes advanced into his 90s, he continued to subscribe to The Courier and enjoyed reading about the happenings in his former hometown --- but began to fear that he might expire before his subscription did. Therefore, it became his practice to subscribe for only six months at a time --- just in case.

Henry Dodge was born in England during 1864 and, like Tonnes, immigrated to the United States when he was about 20, ca. 1886. He arrived in the Thompson vicinity about 1895, but never married and seems never to have prospered either. He farmed for a time, then went to work as a farm hand, some of the time for Tonnes, and as a teamster.

During 1902, Henry decided to sent for his younger sister, Clara, then 22 and still living in England. It was thought that she could serve as his housekeeper at Thompson, then perhaps marry and start a new life in the land of promise. Sadly, she didn't make it. The circumstances were reported upon in The Thompson Courier of March 13, 1902:

"One death which we must record this week occurred under particularly unhappy circumstances. Three thousand miles from home and two thousand miles from her brother for whom she was expecting to make her home, with no friend or relative at her side, Clara Dodge closed her eyes to the sorrows of life and passed into the unknown beyond. She was coming from England to join her brother, Harry Dodge, who lived north of Thompson. She was taken sick on shipboard with spinal meningitis and died in a New York hospital on Friday, March 7th, a few days after having been removed from the vessel. The remains were brought to Thompson for interment and the funeral service was held at the M.E. church yesterday. The deceased was about twenty-two years of age and was born and reared in Devonshire, England."

So that was how Clara Dodge came to be buried in Thompson, Iowa, a place she had never seen, half a continent away from her place of death and an ocean removed from where she was born and raised. Tonnes Mortenson reportedly was among Henry's Iowa neighbors who contributed to the fund that paid for her final journey to Iowa.

Henry continued to live and work in or near Thompson until his death at the age of 74 during January of 1939. In sifting through the records, I discovered that Tonnes Mortenson also had assumed responsibility for arranging his burial alongside his sister's grave overlooking the prairie at Rose Hill. And it was the frugal Tonnes, too, who placed the modest grave marker that ensures some degree of immortality for these siblings who died so far from home in a new land.

Star-spangled ....

Don't like it here? Well, neither do I sometimes.

I'd rather live in a place with universal health care where livable wages were a priority.

Where there was more, rather than less, diversity.

Where racism, homophobia, misogyny and all those other dirty souvenirs of our collective past had been corralled, isolated and neutralized.

Where stewardship of our fragile planet and its resources had top priority.

Where people of faith lived their faith with no thought of imposing it.

But go back? This is where we come from now. And where would we go? For many recent immigrants it would be to places of terror, death, extreme poverty.

Each immigrant who arrives, including the undocumented, is following the American dream.

So let's talk about that dream, abandon the nonsensical idea that the "good old days" are a goal worthy of aspiring to or that the past was somehow golden --- and get to work, together.

The Russell Bank building's first year

This vintage postcard view of the Russell Bank building, marking its 123rd birthday this summer and still standing at the intersection of Maple and Shaw streets, turned up yesterday while I was avoiding excessive heat by doing some filing at the museum.

I wasn't able to find a newspaper story devoted specifically to its construction. Although the Russell Recorder was publishing at the time, back issues haven't survived. And routine coverage of Russell in the Chariton newspapers varied, based on the enthusiasm of the Russell correspondents of the day.

What I was able to do was piece together the following chronology, based upon references in the "Russell News" columns of The Chariton Democrat and The Chariton Herald:

April 1896: Mr. F. R. Crocker, cashier of the First National Bank at Chariton, was in the city a short time Tuesday evening looking over the ground as to the most advisable location for a new brick structure to be occupied by the Russell Bank. Cashier Goodwin of the bank informs us that a corner lot is desired and the choice lies between the one on which Dr. Palmer's office is situated and that east of Huston's livery barn. The project has been in mind for some time and in all probability will be carried out in a short time, as we earnestly trust it may. (Chariton Herald, April 9, 1896)

May 1896: Teams are busily at work on the basement of the new bank building. (Democrat, May 29, 1896)

July 1896: D. A. Enslow has been awarded the contract for the erection of a new bank building and Odd Fellows' hall, a large two-story brick structure, at Russell. This will be the largest brick building in that city and will contain beside the bank, another business room on the first floor and the I.O.O.F. hall above. It is estimated that it will cost $8,000. (Democrat, July 24, 1896) Note: A report in The Herald of July 23 gave the amount of the Enslow contract as $5,084, "if we are correctly informed."

August 1896: The new bank building is humming right along now. (Chariton Herald, Aug. 12, 1896)

November 1896: The bank building is now almost completed, and is a fine ornament to our little city. A stone walk has been laid on the north and east sides, which adds greatly to the appearance of the building. (Chariton Herald, Nov. 19, 1896)

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As the chronology suggests, Chariton's First National Bank --- owned principally by Smith H. Mallory and his family with Frank R. Crocker as cashier --- was the major player in the State Bank of Russell when the building was constructed.

That was all well and good until 11 years later, Oct. 31, 1907, when First National crashed after Frank Crocker's suicide and subsequent revelations that he had bankrupted the institution with speculative investing of its funds.

Crocker killed himself overnight Oct. 30-31 and because of that, the Chariton bank remained closed  on the 31st and never re-opened. The Russell Bank did open, however, but depositors rushed it as soon as news about the Chariton bank reached town and after $6,000 had been withdrawn in 12 minutes, doors were closed and locked.

The venerable Thomas Brandon (1826-1923), also a major investor in the Russell bank and its president in 1907, saved the day by stepping up to guarantee depositors that he would cover with personal assets any losses the bank might sustain because of its affiliation with First National. So the Russell Bank re-opened, surviving what remains as Lucas County's major banking disaster because of Mr. Brandon's integrity.

The passing of a pulchritudinous porker: Longfellow

It's not likely we'll see again a time when front-page obituary honors are accorded to a Poland-China boar, but when Longfellow Jr. passed to his reward as the result of his own folly during the summer of 1913, The Chariton Herald-Patriot of July 10 did just that.

That's a faded image of the great beast above, but the best I could do, lifted from the pages of a 1912 edition of The Iowa Homestead as Longfellow's star ascended.

Longfellow's owner was George W. Sefrit, who farmed northwest of Lucas in Otter Creek Township. Here's the story, published under the headline, "A Severe Loss."

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"Geo. W. Sefrit has lost his most valuable hog, death coming to Longfellow, Jr., Monday as the result of paralysis induced through fighting with another animal. The two hogs got together June 30th and proceeded to fight each other without delay, Longfellow Jr. receiving wounds which resulted in his death a week later despite all the efforts of Dr. C.E. Stewart to save him.

"He was four years old, was bought two years ago by Mr. Sefrit from Peter Mouw, of Orange City, and developed into the grandest Poland-China hog in the state under the handling of his new owner. Hog raisers and those posted in such matters pronounced him the best Poland-China boar in Iowa, if not in the United States, and his loss is a severe blow to them, as well as to Mr. Sefrit.

"The latter had refused $1,500 spot cash for the animal a few months ago, but refused to part with him at the price, preferring to keep him at the head of his excellent herd of brood sows. To such a judge of stock as George W. Sefrit, the loss is not irreparable, but it will be a long time before either Mr. Sefrit or any other hog man will have a hog which will excel Longfellow Jr. or surpass him in those qualities which made him the pride of the state among fanciers of the best in swine."

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A few years after Longfellow's passing, Mr. Sefrit --- aged 45 at the time of his loss --- sold out in Lucas County and moved his operation to a larger farm near Mount Ayr in Ringgold County. He died there on Jan. 14, 1957, having outlived his prize boar by 43 years.

George is buried in Mount Ayr's Rose Hill Cemetery. We have no idea where the remains of Longfellow repose.

So when did that first train steam into Chariton?

Hugh Larimer II

So I was enjoying my breakfast yesterday when three distinguished women sat down at a nearby table and began to discuss one of the trivia questions found on July's "table tent" --- a stand-up folder distributed to businesses by Chariton Area Chamber-Main Street that contains the city's monthly events schedule, advertising, and four or five local trivia questions.

My ears perked up. I'm responsible for churning out the monthly trivia questions --- and someone was questioning the accuracy of one of my answers: "On or about July 4, 1867" in response to the question, "When did the first passengers reach Chariton by train?"

Well! Rarely quick to anger, however, I smiled and walked away but now feel constrained to defend my answer. Although I'm willing to admit that the precise date seems to have been July 3. But I did say "on or about."

Actually, the history books are a little vague --- stating only that the first train arrived in Chariton on or about the 1st of July, 1867. Construction of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad from the Mississippi to the Missouri rivers had begun at Burlington during the 1850s, but was stalled at Ottumwa by the Civil War.

As soon as the war was over, construction resumed and the tracks crept toward Chariton. 

I have a witness to call in regard to the precise date passengers reached Chariton: William McKlveen Larimer (1847-1922), son of Hugh II and Nancy, grandson of the venerable Hugh, 1780-1859, senior member of the Larimer tribe in Lucas County.

Henry Gittinger, editor of The Chariton Leader, ran into Mr. Larimer as he was preparing to report on 4th of July festivities in Lucas County during 1912 and included in his coverage in The Leader of July 12 this statement:

"W.M. Larimer: I celebrated the 4th of July in Chariton 46 (actually 45) years ago. The day before, the first train was run over the road. Naturally this was a big event and as many as could got on and rode to town. A train was scheduled for the 4th and when the people heard the whistle they forgot all about the whangdoodle procession and ran to see it. Chariton has been celebrating on the Fourth pretty much ever since."

"Whangdoodle procession" may need a little explaining. Fourth of July celebrations in Lucas County at the time sometimes featured two parades. The big one was serious: brass bands, contingents of veterans, carriages containing the day's orators and entries by churches, businesses and other worthy organizations. The other was pure silliness --- clowns, kiddies and costumed adults willing to play the fool. That was the whangdoodle parade.

The illustration here is a Burlington & Missouri River Railroad stock certificate owned by William M. Larimer's father, Hugh. Serendipitously, I found it for sale online while searching for an illustration to accompany this post.

The view from Murray's bench

Murray Funk, who died during June of 2017 at the age of 90, was one of the kindest people I've known --- and I'd known him for a long time when he passed. 

Murray and Lucille moved from near Lacona to the small farm in Benton Township where they lived for more than 50 years in 1961, when I was just a kid. This was adjacent to our "other place" --- used mostly for grazing cattle and, on endless hot summer afternoon, putting up hay to feed those critters during the winter. Murray always was there to help out when my dad needed an extra hand.

He also worked more than 30 years at the Hy-Vee Distribution Center to make ends meet. And for many years, too, was one of the custodians at the Chariton Cemetery.

So I was happy to see the other day that Murray's memorial bench has been permanently located in the cemetery, adjacent to the drive on a high point overlooking his grave site. Accepting the invitation, I sat down for a while to enjoy the breeze, the view and a memory or two.

If you're out walking in the cemetery, please sit down, turn off your mobile device, relax a little and do the same. 

Franklin Park goes to the dogs (and their humans)

July 6 was a big day in Chariton for dogs --- and their humans: grand opening of the Chariton Dog Park, a volunteer-driven effort to turn a little-used city park in the northwest part of town (Franklin) into a play and exercise area for canines and their companions. 

As it stands now, fencing is complete and the park is in use daily from dawn to dusk. Plans call for landscaping, tree-planting, benches and more as funds become available. You'll find more about the park on Facebook, link located here, or at its website, which is here.

And I'm guessing that the youngsters who attended school on these grounds from the fall of 1890 until the spring of 1964 would get a charge out of the way their former playground has been creatively recycled and the area brought back into active use.

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The Franklin Park property was purchased during 1889 by the Chariton School District when student numbers were causing its three existing buildings to overflow. At that time, South School was located on the current site of Columbus School and housed, in addition to lower grades, the high school. North School was located on the current site of the high school; and East School (now Garfield and privately owned) was located on South 7th Street. South School was the district flagship; North and East schools, similar in size and appearance to the planned new building.

A bond issue was passed to finance the new structure and it was turned over to the school board during late November 1890. Approximately 100 students and their teachers, Alice Bradrick and Mollie Freel, began their first school day in the new building on Wednesday, Nov. 26. More students and teachers joined them after Thanksgiving.

By contemporary standards, conditions were primitive. Each room in the new building was heated by a separate stove. The "restrooms" were outhouses on the school grounds.

The Chariton Patriot and The Chariton Herald contained identical descriptions of the new building. The following is taken from The Herald of Dec. 4, 1890:

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(West School) is a four-room building, 47 x 50 feet, two stories high, with a fine ten-foot basement under the whole. The rooms are 23 x 35 feet each with height of ceiling twelve feet in the first and 13 feet, 8 inches in the second story. The contract price was $6,370 to which the Board of Directors added an allowance of two hundred dollars for changes and additional work, making the cost of the building proper $6,570, which with the building of outhouses, fencing, and walks, putting in heating furnaces and furnishing the rooms will make an aggregate cost of about $8,000.

This building is a much needed and certainly very creditable addition to our already fine school facilities. It is substantially built, well finished throughout, and of tasteful and harmonious design. The broad and easily rising stairways is an especially good feature.

The architects who furnished the plans and specifications were our fellow townsmen, Messrs. Layton & Hougland, and much credit is due them for the excellent taste and skill displayed in their elaboration, as upon the accuracy of their work depended the harmony and symmetry of the entire superstructure as well as the solidity of its foundations.

The contractor, W.A. Corbett, one of Chariton's well known mechanics and builders, has done his work in a manner to reflect much credit upon himself. His principal assistant in the carpenter work was our good friend, R.E. Edmundson; with George Rea later on in the work. The brick work was done by A. D. Enslow, of Derby, assisted by S. B. Swift of this city, these two experts doing the entire job themselves. The school board are to be congratulated on the careful and efficient business management which has secured to the district so good a building at a reasonable cost.

Chariton now has four excellent brick school houses of modern construction, containing an aggregate of 18 rooms, with a seating capacity of over 800 pupils. The district now owns school property which cost them in grounds, buildings and furniture $45,000. They now employ seventeen teachers, including principal, at a monthly expense of $719, which with the janitors and cost of fuel runs our monthly pay roll for carrying on the school up to $874. To this will be added two additional teachers for the rooms soon to be occupied, when Chariton will expend about $950 per month for school purposes.

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Two years later, during August of 1892, the Chariton School Board approved a resolution renaming its four buildings. South School became Columbus, East School became Garfield, North School became Bancroft and the newest, West School, became Franklin.

As the years passed, the original Bancroft School was torn down and replaced by a new flagship building for the district, built in 1900 and renamed Alma Clay in 1928 (demolished during 1970). The new Chariton High School, oldest part of the current high school complex, was built just east of Alma Clay during 1923.

Garfield School was substantially improved in 1916 when the current east front of the building, containing four classrooms, was added to the original structure; and again in 1940 when much of the rest of the original building was replaced by additional new classrooms and a gymnasium.

Although repaired and now equipped with central heating and restrooms, Franklin remained as the smallest of the district's building.

When the new Columbus School and the new Van Allen School opened their doors in 1964, the school district decided to demolish Franklin and turned to the city for assistance. The city agreed to demolish the old building in return for a 99-year lease on the grounds for use as a public park.

There were ambitious plans --- tennis courts, a shelter house, landscaping, etc. --- but funding was not available and by the time money was available, recreational attention had shifted to north and far northwest Chariton and Franklin Park just kind of fell asleep --- the grass was clipped regularly and trees continued to grow, but no particular use was found for it.

That's all changed now and hopefully the momentum will continue. Anyone interested in contributing to the Franklin/Chariton Dog Park effort will find information about how to do so by following the links given above.

An historic "oil station" on an historic site

Not that long ago, this vintage "oil station" at the intersection of North Main and Roland in Chariton took a direct hit from an out-of-control vehicle and the service bays to the south were badly damaged. As you've probably noticed, the damage has been repaired now --- except for fresh paint --- and the building given a new lease on life.

That's good news for the Lucas County Courthouse Square Historic District and for a structure built here in its original form 93 years ago, during the summer of 1926.

Before that, the Gardner House --- a family home, boarding house and hotel --- had been located on this corner since Chariton's earliest days. 

The transition from one era and one use to another was noted on the front page of The Herald-Patriot of Jan. 7, 1926, in an article headlined "Gardner House Thing of the Past" that provides some insight into the history of the site, as follows:

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One of the old landmarks in Chariton, the Gardner House, located one block north of the northwest corner of the square, is to be supplanted by a new, up-to-date oil station. The building, which belongs to the B. R. Van Dyke estate, is to undergo many changes. The south half of the building, constructed of old native lumber, is being torn down and the north half, which also contains much old native lumber, will be remodeled and moved to the west part of the lot, where it will face north. A basement will be put under it and when completed it will be a modern cottage.

The front 50 feet of the lot, facing the east, and where the Gardner House now stands, has been leased to the Shaffer Oil and Refining Company, but the Deep Rock Petroleum Company will have charge of a new oil station which will be erected on the grounds.

The Gardner House was erected probably in the early 1850s as Mr. N. B. Gardner purchased the property in 1855 of John Edwards, and it has been owned continuously in the same family since that time, a period of seventy-five years.

After purchasing the residence, Mr. Gardner added to the building until it was a commodious structure. He and Mrs. Gardner conducted a boarding and rooming house there for years. Mrs. Gardner passed away in 1890, but Mr. Gardner and daughter, Minnie, conducted the hostelry until 1896. In this building, all the Gardner children, Frank, now deceased, Mrs. Ella Van Dyke, of this city, Mrs. Minnie Wiltsey, who passed away a few years ago, and Dell and Fred Gardner, now of Chicago, all grew to years of maturity. Since the Gardner family ceased to occupy it as a home, it has been conducted by different ones as a boarding and rooming house, but has always been known as the Gardner House.

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I'll have more to say about Nelson B. Gardner another time, but here's an image of the city block bounded by North Main and North 11th streets and Braden and Roland avenues from an 1899 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map that shows the location of the Gardner House.

Note that the building currently housing the Hurribak Club, south of the Gardner House on the alley, was serving as a billiards hall in 1899.

The Bates Hotel site as well as the grounds of the house to the west currently are occupied by Midwest Heritage Bank.