Chariton's invasion of the devil wagons commences

Chariton's first automobile, Harry Penick's steam-powered Locomobile, arrived in town during 1902. During May of 1905, three years later, Ed Walton invested in Lucas County's first gasoline-powered "devil wagon" (above, from the Lucas County Historical Society collection), a Lambert.

In the intervening years, an occasional example of this revolutionary form of transport rolled through town --- almost always at the expense of terrified horses and their disgruntled owners. 

Here's how one weekend in July, 1905, went down --- commencing at the northeast corner of the square (Stanley grocery occupied what now is the Piper's building) and continuing around to the west side:

+++

Last Friday evening a man with his family, claiming to be from Manhattan, Kansas, stopped their canopy-top "devil wagon" in which they were traveling at the curb by the Stanley grocery. Roy Threlkeld was driving up the street behind a spirited team, which became frightened at the "auto" and became unmanageable, made a sharp turn breaking the tongue and one wheel of the the buggy, which was left anchored to a hitching post on the northeast corner of the square while the team took a  run down the street, being stopped somewhere in the south part of town.

On Monday, another dangerous runaway took place. This time W.A. Eikenberry's delivery team took fright at an "auto" car and took a run down Main street, running into a buggy belonging to Charley Erickson, making a complete wreck of it. The driver of the wagon, Todd Lane, was badly shaken up and  one horse  injured. (Chariton Leader, July 20, 1905)

+++

The Patriot, also of July 20, had a more complete account of the Eikenberry runaway:

A team belonging to McKlveen & Eikenberry became frightened at Walton's automobile Monday morning and ran from the office south to the square. Todd Lane was driving the team and  one line snapped in two so  he could do nothing to stop the horses. On the west side of the square, just in front of Daugherty's drug store, they struck a buggy with such force that the shafts snapped and it was carried along for about a rod and completely demolished. The collision upset the delivery wagon and Mr. Lane jumped, landed right side up and caught his team. One of the horses was cut severely on the foot. The buggy which was wrecked was comparatively new and belonged to C.O. Erickson, who lives east of town on the old Baxter farm. It was snatched away so quickly and easily that the horse attached to it was not even frightened.

+++

In the end, of course, the devil wagons prevailed and today horses are seen in town only when an old-order Amish family arrives to shop or there's a parade.

The buzz about Chariton's 1903 honeybee invasion

Back in 1903, Chariton had three weekly newspapers, all published on Thursdays: The Patriot, The Leader and The Herald. And during the week those newspapers were published on July 30, two of the three carried reports of the great honeybee invasion.

The Herald attributed the invasion to a luxuriant crop of white clover and focused on the swarm that had settled under the vestibule of First Baptist Church:

"Honey bees are both literally and figuratively 'in clover' this summer," The Herald Reported, "and they are more than embodying the poets' description by 'improving each shining hour.' Never was white clover so abundant or so rich as it is this summer. It does not seem to have the slobbering effect on horses that it usually has, but instead makes them fat and strong.

"There have been dozens of bee swarms in Chariton within the past few weeks and some of them in queer places. One swarm settled on the roof of G.J. Stewart's house, one in a tree in the courthouse yard, one under J.C. Karn's blacksmith shop and one, as if to benefit the minister, under the floor of the vestibule in the Baptist church.

"The last named swarm was hived yesterday by Leonard Riebel after they had been at work just a month and 25 pounds of honey and 30 pounds of bee bread were taken out by Mr. Riebel as a result of the one month's work by the bees. The honey was presented to Rev. Palmer and will have a tendency to still further sweeten his christian character and constantly remind him that it takes unceasing toil if one would accomplish good results. Rev. Palmer says the honey is wonderfully white and clear and of very superior quality.

"A swarm tried to settle on Bert Murray's head as he was going home to dinner the other day, but he objected and they settled in a tree in L.F. Maple's yard instead."

+++

The Patriot reported upon the invasion of empty hives stored in the barn of Ephraim Cranshaw Bridge, pioneer photographer and optometrist:

"E. C. Bridge, who formerly paid some attention to bee culture but discontinued it several years ago, has had a number of old bee hives stored in his barn. Last week, a large swarm of bees entered the barn and took possession of one of these old hives. In a few days, this pioneer colony was followed by two others, and on Saturday and Sunday, the advance forces were strengthened by two more regiments until now, Mr. Bridge finds himself engaged in the bee business with five large colonies of honey harvesters busy at work.

"By what means they gained intelligence of the whereabouts of these old hives they do not stop to explain, but seeming to consider possession nine points of the law, they show a decided disposition to defend their new homes against all comers. Mr. Bridge says he doesn't care to get into an argument with them over the point anyway."

+++

Two weeks later, Dr. Bridge told The Herald "that the five swarms of bees that took possession of the empty hives in his yard are still with him, and a sixth has made its appearance." But after that, the buzz about the bees was silenced.

Col. Dungan and Company K, 34th Iowa Volunteers

We're nearing, during this long hot summer of 2022, the 160th anniversary of Lucas County's Company K, 34th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, recruited by Chariton attorney Warren S. Dungan (1822-1913) during July of that long-ago year, organized in Chariton on August 9. 1862, and finally mustered on Oct. 15 at Camp Lauman in Burlington.

The illustrations are of related artifacts in the Lucas County Historical Society collection --- a portrait of Col. Dungan in uniform, his pocket-size photo album containing carte de visite images arranged in order from Lincoln through Grant to some of the men he actually served with, a portrait of Dungan as an old man and a map of Camp Lauman drawn by T. Park Coin, one of Dungan's recruits.

As veterans of the 34th Regiment aged, regular reunions were held --- keep in mind that all of the 34th's 1,000 men had been recruited in Lucas, Warren, Decatur and Wayne counties. The 1903 reunion was scheduled for September in Chariton. And Col. Dungan composed for the occasion an account of how Company K came to be, published first in The Des Moines Capital and then republished in The Chariton Herald of July 23.

This is an especially useful piece for anyone intrigued by Civil War history because it describes a  recruiting and organizing process similar across Iowa as the war accelerated during its first 18 months or so. Here's Col. Dungan's history of the origins of Company K:

+++

The Biennial reunion of the 34th Iowa Regiment is booked for this city next September, the 3rd and 4th days. B.F. Dora, of Warren township, is president, and Col. Dungan, of this city, secretary. A goodly number of these old soldiers yet reside in Lucas and adjoining counties who, with their families, anticipate a delightful time during this event. The secretary (Dungan) relates in a recent Des Moines Capital issue, the following interesting history of the 34th at the opening of the war of the Rebellion ---

Acting under a recruiting commission, obtained from Governor Kirkwood in July, 1862, I recruited a company for the war which afterwards became Company K, 34th Iowa. We organized the company at Chariton August 9th by the election of the following officers, to-wit:

Warren S. Dungan, captain; Wm. Boyle, first lieutenant; and John O. Coles, second lieutenant. We started for Des Moines the same afternoon without waiting for orders to do so. We traveled in ordinary farm wagons. We arrived at Indianola a little after midnight. I did not stop there, but went on to Des Moines to engage quarters for my company. It arrived the next day. I secured the upper story of a  brick house, yet standing on the south side of the Coon River, to the right as you cross the Coon River bridge.

The upper story was all in one room and there, with straw on the floor for a bed and blankets over them, the 100 men composing that company slept for over five weeks. I stayed with the boys the first night, but thereafter I was content to secure lodging at the Galt House, a little way from the north end of the Coon River bridge. The company was composed of as large and fine looking set of stalwart men as went into the service from any state.

We hoped to get into the Twenty-third Iowa, then being organized in Des Moines, but in this we were disappointed. The governor (Samuel Kirkwood) and his adjutant general, N.B. Baker, were doing all in their power to organize the new recruits into regiments and send them to the front, but as yet they were not able to assign us or fix our place of rendezvous.

The boys were impatient to get to the front --- "the war would be over before they could get there." They found out their mistake later. To retain these men and prevent any of them from seeking a shorter way into actual service was the question for the officers to solve. The company was divided into squads and much drilling was done daily. 

I reported to Col. Dewey of the Twenty-third, and, at my suggestion, he detailed some of my men for guard duty of government property in West Des Moines. One day he detailed Littleton R. Moore, an awkward country boy scarcely 20, to guard a room with arms in it. The colonel came to enter the room and was halted and challenged. He had forgotten the countersign, but insisted that Moore knew him well and ordered the sentinel to stand aside. Moore drew his bayonet on him and proposed to run it through him if he advanced another step. The Colonel saw the boy was in the right, and praised him to me in telling me the incident.

After waiting three weeks for an assignment, and being apparently no nearer getting into the service than when we first went to Des Moines and still fearing that some of the men might try a shorter way thereto than by remaining with us,  I sent Lieutenant Coles to Davenport, where Col. Chambers gave him a recruiting commission and on his return to camp, on the first day of September, 1862, each member of the company was sworn into the United States service as a private soldier by Lieutenant Coles. The following is the form of enlistment paper given to each member, copying from my own, which is before me:

VOLUNTEER ENLISTMENT

"I Warren S. Dungan, born in Beaver county, in the state of Pennsylvania, aged 39 years and by occupation a lawyer,, do hereby acknowledge to have volunteered the first day of August, 1862, to serve as a soldier in the Army of the United States of America, for the period of three years, unless sooner discharged by proper authority. Do also agree to accept such bounty,  pay,  rations, and clothing as are or may be established by law for volunteers. And I, Warren S. Dungan,  do solemnly swear that I will bear true and lawful allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or oppressors whomsoever; and that I will observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the Rules and Articles of War. (Signed) Warren S. Dungan

"Sworn and subscribed to at Des  Moines this first day of September, 1862. Before John O. Coles, second lieutenant, mustering officer."

Being now full fledged American soldiers, the boys were content to bide their time to go south. Some two or more weeks elapsed while awaiting assignment. The line officers elect of these ten companies consulted together as to ways and means to get most speedily into the service. At length a meeting of these officers was arranged. At that meeting the plan adopted was to organize a regiment, having just enough companies for that purpose, and submit the same to the governor for his approval. The  officers thus agreed upon were as follows:

George W. Clark, Indianola, Warren county, colonel; Warren S. Dungan, Lucas county, lieutenant colonel; Racine D. Kellogg, Garden Grove, Decatur county,  major; William M. Bryan,  Indianola, Warren county, adjutant; John D. Sarver, Chariton, Lucas county,  quartermaster; Charles W. Davis, Indianola, Warren county, surgeon; Henry W. Jay, Chariton, Lucas county, assistant surgeon; Uriah B. Goliday, Garden Grove, Decatur county, chaplain; Bertrand Rockwell, Chariton, Lucas County, sergeant major; Joseph T. Meek, Indianola, Warren county, quartermaster sergeant; John Throckmorton, Chariton,  Lucas county, commissary sergeant; John S. Davis, Des Moines,  Polk county, hospital sergeant.

I was appointed a committee to present this organization to the governor and ask his approval. The time was passed in studying the tactics and in daily drill -- both squad and company. By this time ten companies of volunteers, four from Warren county, three from Lucas, two from Decatur, and one from Wayne county, were in camp in Des Moines, having, like us, hurried there without orders, anxious to enter the service. The governor was much pleased with our action and at once approved the same, except that he had a desire to appoint Dr. Davis the colonelcy of a regiment, but the next day, he received a letter from Surgeon Hughes, of Keokuk, saying: "Dr. S.W. Davis has just been examined by me, and don't fail to put him in the medical department," and the next day the order was issued organizing our regiment as proposed, and giving us the number Thirty-fourth, and fixing Burlington as our place of rendezvous. We then waited somewhat impatiently for the order to go to Burlington, but none came. Again, the line officers met to devise some means of getting a start towards Burlington.

The reason for the delay, ordering us to Burlington, was that the barracks would not be ready for our reception for some ten days. Again I was sent to the governor with this proposition, that we would go to our homes for 10 days and report at Ottumwa, the then terminus of the "Q" railroad, without expense to the state.

When I entered the governor's office he was so overwhelmed with his duties that it seemed almost impossible to gain his attention. The office was full of officers and citizens demanding his attention. To one he said, "Not now." To another, "You must wait your time." I remembered the governor was a financier, and that he wanted to save the state from expense wherever it was possible, and, watching my opportunity as he hurriedly passed where I was standing, I said, "Governor, can you give one minute's time to a proposition which will save the state several hundred dollars?" He said, "Certainly I can." It took less than a minute to explain, and he turned to the adjutant general and told him to issue the order as we requested, and we received it the same evening, and next morning we were on our way to our homes, and punctual to obey the order, were at Ottumwa at the appointed time.

It gives me pleasure to here testify to the soldierly deportment of every man in the company. Not a single case of discipline became necessary. The nearest we came to such a case was one day while the members the company were falling in for  company drill. The  company was partially formed; the next man to be called would have to step into mud and water. He hesitated, but said nothing. Again he was sharply commanded to take his  place, but still stood as if resolved to disobey. I  then took out my watch and said to him, "You have just sixty seconds to get into line --- 30, 40, 50" --- and promptly he took his place in line and I was as much relieved as he. This was before we were sworn into the United States service by Lieutenant Coles."

T. Park Coin's map of Camp Lauman

+++

Col. Dungan mentioned by name in this account Littleton R. Moore, "an awkward country boy scarcely 20." Pvt. Moore was wounded during the Battle of Arkansas Post on Jan. 11, 1863, and died of those wounds on Jan. 14.

Clifton E. Werts and Russell's first motor home

Motor homes and related recreational vehicles are taken for granted these days, traveling the byways of the Americas and filling campgrounds both public and private. But back in 1926, when Russell's Clifton E. Werts (1868-1943) built what may have been Lucas County's first, such an innovation was front-page news. At least in The Russell Union-Tribune of July 8 that year.

I've borrowed this image of the Werts family from Ancestry.com, where it was posted during 2009 by Gene Pierce, identified in his profile as a "Colorado Texan in Northern Kentucky who wants to be in Hawaii" and a descendant.

The faces are not tied to specific names, but the family consisted of Clifton E. and Clara Mae (McCoy) Werts and their six adult children, Edith (Werts) Lewis and Walter, Harvey, Richard, Charles and Ralph Werts. Here's an image of the house car, courtesy of Darla Weber.

Image courtesy of Darla Weber.

And here's the text of the article that appeared under the headline, "A House on Wheels."

+++

Of late years we have seen pictures in our dailies of "Houses on Wheels," modern homes built on an automobile chassis, but few of us have seen these close at hand. Two years ago, one of these traveling homes passed through Russell, but now we have one built in Russell by a Russell man.

Mr. C.E. Werts has just finished building on a Willys Knight chassis what will be his home for perhaps the next year.

The house, as it may well be called, is about 8 x 12 feet by 6 and a half feet high, built out of the finest grade white pine, wall board and veneer, covered with galvanized iron. It is equipped with lockers, dining table which fastens to the wall when not in use, a bed which folds up for a seat or a couch in the daytime. These are the built in furnishings of the rear compartment or living room.

In the front and also the driving compartment, there is on one side the entrance and a roomy wardrobe and on the other side a sink, ice box and another locker. These features are all built in and when not in use for their special purposes will form tables and seats. A small stove will be carried in the front locker to be used for their cooking.

Each room is lighted with an electric light bulb, the electricity being generated by the car. The gasoline tank is placed to the left of the driver and down near the running board and enclosed just under the floor, the spout or opening coming out by the hood on the engine. There is a large window in the rear, one on each side of the rear compartment and the forward compartment is glass on both sides back two or more feet and across the front.

It is built low and wide and out of light material and will not weigh much more than an ordinary closed car body.

The walls will be painted an ivory with the woodwork natural, showing the beautiful grain of the wood. The color for the outside has not been decided upon for sure as yet but Mr. Werts says they are planning on a grey or something which will not show the dust too much.

Mr. and Mrs. Werts will leave on their trip around the first of next month. They will go north from here to Minnesota for some fishing in the lakes, thence east to St. Paul, Chicago, several Canadian points and on to Boston. From there they will go to Philadelphia to attend the Sesquicentennial Exposition and on south down the coast to Florida where they will spend the winter mid the palms of the Everglades.

In the spring they will take the famous Dixie Trail west across the continent to southern California and up the coast highway to Vancouver, British Columbia, making the circuit back to their starting point next fall. This is the advance plans as they are now, but Mr. Werts states that he is not making any special plans and that he will go as he feels like it and stop when they wish, taking their time and seeing everything of interest on the way.

This will be a wonderful trip and doubly so with such a modern home to make it in.

+++

I can find no indication in subsequent editions of Lucas County newspapers that C.E. and Clara actually carried out these ambitious travel plans at the time, although they did spend the winter that followed in Florida.

The "house car" remained in use during extensive travels in the years that followed and was replaced eventually by a later version, shown here, also courtesy of Darla Weber.

Photo courtesy of Darla Weber.

Clifton died at 75 while wintering in Florida on Dec. 11, 1943, and the following paragraph was included in his obituary, published in The Union-Tribune of Dec. 23:

"On March 14, 1889 at Russell, Ia., he was united in marriage to Clara Mae McCoy. They established their home on a farm south of Russell. They continued the farm life until 17 years ago and since that time, he and Mrs. Werts have traveled extensively in their house car. His interests were wide and varied and many times their children or grandchildren accompanied them on one of their trips. Almost five years ago they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Florida among friends."

From Dry Flat to the Manila American Cemetery

I happened upon the story of the Sutton brothers, Orville and Warren, in a brief paragraph headlined "Two Brothers Die in Japanese Prisons," published on the front page of the Russell Union-Tribune of Aug. 2, 1945.

The Suttons hadn't lived in Iowa for 20 years when World War II erupted, and it seems unlikely many subscribers would have remembered them. But the fact that they lived as boys in the Goodwater Creek neighborhood just south of the Lucas-Wayne county line, south of Russell, caught my attention. I grew up not far away. And they attended Dry Flat School. So did I.

Here's the text of the article:

+++

Word was received by friends here last week from Harold Sutton of Elgin, Oregon, that both his brothers, Orville and Vernon, were declared officially dead by the War Department. Orville, the eldest brother, was first reported missing following the Battle of Bataan May 8, 1942, and later was reported killed, but in the letter from Harold Friday, July 27, he wrote that Orville died of dysentery in the Japanese prison at Camp O'Donnell May 15, 1942.

Vernon died July 19, 1942, in the Japanese prison Camp Cabanatuan of malarial fever.

Orville, Harold and Vernon, sons of the late Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sutton, lived in the Goodwater neighborhood when the boys were little and attended Dry Flat School.

+++

Robert Sutton was native to northern Wayne County --- son of Greenleaf N. and Catherine (Church) Sutton, who are buried in the New York Cemetery. He married Viola Hancock, a dozen years his junior, during December of 1910 in Idaho and they returned to Iowa to farm. Their sons were born during the next 10 years in the Goodwater neighborhood --- Orville during 1911; Harold, in 1913; and Vernon, during 1916.

Soon after 1920, the family moved south to a farm near Rogersville in Greene County, Missouri, but Robert died very soon thereafter, on Feb. 23, 1922, of a stroke, leaving Viola a widow living in an unfamiliar place with sons ages 10, 8 and 6. Her family lived in Oregon, so she took the boys there to live.

Nine years later, as World War II loomed on the horizon, Orville and Vernon were working together in northern California. Orville enlisted in the U.S. Army at San Francisco on May 3, 1941, and Vernon enlisted three days later.

After training, both were assigned to the 31st Infantry Division, Orville to Company L and Vernon, to Company D, and deployed soon thereafter to the Philippines.

The Japanese invasion of the Philippines commenced during January of 1942 and the 31st Infantry and other U.S. units were consolidated on the Bataan Peninsula for a battle that raged until surrender of U.S. and Filipino forces on April 9.

Both Orville and Vernon survived combat --- and what we now call the Bataan Death March, but barely. Orville died at the Camp O'Donnell prison of dysentery on May 15, 1942. Vernon, transferred to the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, died there of malaria on July 19.

After the war, Orville's remains were recovered, identified and reinterred at his brother, Harold's, request in the Manila American Cemetery. Vernon had been buried in a mass grave and his remains could not be identified, so he rests nearby among the unknowns --- brothers together still, but half a world away from Goodwater Creek and Dry Flat country school.

Robert Rennie and death in the Clevland mines

I've written many times about the hazards involved in Lucas County's coal mining industry between its inception during 1876 and the closure of Big Ben mine 102 years later, during 1978.

Robert Rennie, whose grave and recently reset tombstone are located in Fry Hill Cemetery at Lucas, was one of the first losses.

The Chariton Patriot of July 30, 1879, reported his death this way: "Robert Rennie, engineer of the Whitebreast mines at Cleveland, was killed on Saturday last. He had left the engine in charge of the fireman, and was looking down the shaft asking a man below about a pump. The fireman received the signal to let the cage down, which, in its descent, struck Rennie on the back of the head and killed him instantly. He left a wife and nine children without any means of support. He was alone to blame for the accident."

Rennie, born ca. 1841, was Scots by birth and had married Marian (or Mary Ann) Kerr in Scotland during June of 1861. 

About 1870, Robert sailed for the United States and found work in the mines of the Midwest. He sent for his family and Mary Ann and their five children, ranging in age from 9 to 1, arrived in New York from Glasgow aboard the S.S. Australia on Nov. 9, 1872, listed as "steerage" passengers.

The first of Lucas County's Cleveland mines, White Breast No. 1, opened during 1876 and it seems likely that the Rennie family arrived in the new mining town of Cleveland soon after it was founded. By the time of Robert's death, there were four additional children.

The Rennie family remained in Cleveland through 1880 but moved soon thereafter to Illinois and I've not attempted to track them down. The eldest son, James, had gone to work in the mines by 1880 and in addition to caring for her children, Mary Ann was taking in boarders. So the family was not destitute.

And they purchased a modest tombstone for Robert, now renewed for the foreseeable future, to remind us that he was here.

The moral high ground & Chariton's 1880 City Code

Earlier this month, I wrote about William Mullen's 1888 encounter with Chariton's blasphemy law: "Blasphemy, truth, William Mullen & C.C. Leech."  So I thought it might be informative to look in depth at Chariton's 1880 City Code --- upon which Mr. Mullen's fine for telling off Mr. Leech in blasphemous terms was based.

The code had been adopted by City Council on Jan. 8, 1880, at a time when E.B. Woodward was mayor and J.D. Hull, city clerk, and became effective upon publication in the city's newspapers immediately thereafter.

Much of it was fairly routine stuff, but Ordinance No. 31, while not extraordinary for the time, contains several sections that seem just a trifle too obsessed with public morality for the taste of most 21st century Lucas Countyans. 

I've picked out a few of those sections, including Section 7, a personal favorite: "No person shall, within the city, stand for service, or exhibit, or cause to be stood for service or exhibited, any stallion, jack, bull or boar, unless entirely excluded from the public view or the view of any private family."

You just never knew what might spark an undue interest in the mechanics of reproduction if the eyes of impressionable citizens were not shielded.

ORDINANCE NO. XXXI

An Ordinance defining certain offenses, and providing for the punishment of the offenders.

Be it  ordained by the City Council of the City of Chariton.

Section 1. No person shall, within the limits of the city use any abusive, profane, blasphemous, obscene or offensive language to or about any other person.

Section 2. No person shall use any profane, blasphemous, vulgar or obscene language in or on any public place within the limits of the city.

Section 3. No person shall make, or cause to be made, any loud, boisterous or unusual noise, to the disturbance or annoyance of any other person within the city.

Section 4. No person shall disturb or annoy any place of worship, or  person therein worshipping, or any lawful assembly of persons congregated together, by any rude, boisterous or unbecoming language or behavior, in or near the place of worship, or place of assembly, within this city.

Section 5. No person shall, within the city limits, follow the avocation of a prostitute, neither shall any person, for the purpose of prostitution, resort, or go to a place where a prostitute stays or is kept.

Section 6. No person shall, within this city publicly appear in a state of nudity or in an indecent or obscene dress, or in a dress not belonging or appropriate to his or her person or sex, or make any indecent exposure of his or her  person to any one, or expose his or her person in a state of undress before any window fronting on any street or alley, or be guilty of any lewd or indecent conduct before anyone, or in any public place sell, or offer to sell, or exhibit to any person, any lewd or obscene book, picture, paper, publication or representation, or perform any indecent or obscene play or representation on the stage, or take part, either publicly or otherwise, in playing or performing, or assisting in playing or performing of any indecent or obscene play.

Section 7. No person shall, within the city, stand for service, or exhibit, or cause to be stood for service or exhibited, any stallion, jack, bull or boar, unless entirely excluded from the public view or the view of any private family.

Section 8. No person shall, within the city, publicly, or  so as to be seen or heard by the public, or within hearing or sight of a private residence, play at billiards, pool, ten pins, pigeon hole, carondolet, cards, quoits or other games of amusement or chance on the Sabbath day.

Section 22. No person shall disturb the peace and quietude of the city, or of any person or persons within the city, by fighting or quarrelling with any person or persons. Neither shall any person offer to fight any other person or persons within the city.

Section 23. No person shall, within the city, keep any bawdy house, or house of ill fame, or house of assignation, or any disorder control, to be used for any such purpose; and no person shall be found in or remain in any store, shop, saloon or place of business after the close of the same for business, or in any room or apartment or building not used as a dwelling in company with any common prostitute.

No person shall, within the city, play at cards, dice, faro, roulette or other game, for money, or other things, nor bet, wager, or stake any money or thing on the result of any game, race, thing, transaction or event, nor establish, operate, or keep, or permit to be operated or kept, in any place of building in his possession, or under his control, or assist in keeping or operating any gaming tables, or gambling device, or any room or place for gambling purposes, where any game of chance to skill is, or shall be played for money or property.

On a clear Sabbath morning ...

I came across this today while on my Sunday morning search for the meaning of life among the dross that washes up along the shoreline of the World Wide Web.

The author is Richard Rohr, Franciscan priest and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque.

Not a bad reminder for those of us who still attend a church on these Sabbath mornings be it out of conviction, habit, curiosity --- or an interest in stained glass.

The moving tower of Lucas County ....

The long hot summer of 1892 heated up a little more during late July in Lucas County as the Aug. 9 election that would authorize the sale of $60,000 in bonds to build our present courthouse approached.

The old brick courthouse, built during 1858, had begun to collapse and had been evacuated a couple of years earlier. So there was no doubt a new courthouse was needed. But many thought $60,000 was far too extravagant; others were fearful that it was not nearly enough. And Russell, located in southeast Lucas County, developed a plan to build the new courthouse there and move the county seat.

The county supervisors employed the Des Moines architectural firm of Foster and Liebbe to work out a preliminary design for the building after considerable research and many site visits to other recently built courthouses in the region.

And this was the proposed design as it stood going into the election --- as published in The Chariton Herald of July 28, 1892, along with letters to the editor supporting and opposing the bond issue.

It's interesting to note that the original design called for a tower in the center of the north front of the building. As remains evident, that tower eventually was constructed at the northwest corner. I've not found an explanation for the change.

Lucas County voters on Aug. 9 approved the bond issue by a margin of 1,285 to 873. In Chariton, nary a vote was cast against, but down in Washington Township --- where Russell is located --- the vote was 266 against and only 8 in favor.

Ground was broken for the new building during the fall of 1892 and construction was completed in time for dedication during May of 1894. Total cost was --- $60,000. Here's how the new courthouse looked then:

Howard Threlkeld and Molly, Iowa's oldest horse

Obviously, the assertion that Old Molly was Iowa's most venerable horse back in the 1940s remains open to counterclaims --- but here in Lucas County we would need firm evidence before giving up on this claim to statewide distinction.

Molly's first brush with fame came during November of 1945 when, having celebrated her 42nd birthday, she was featured on the front page of The Chariton Herald-Patriot of Nov. 8. The image here, lifted from microfilm, is not good but at least her general outline is evident.

"Pictured above with its owner, Howard Threlkeld, is what is believed to be the oldest horse in the state of Iowa. She just celebrated her 42nd birthday. Howard says that she was born on the farm he is now farming, worked steadily until the last three years when he turned her out to pasture and retirement."

Three years later, on May 6, 1948, Molly was back on the front page of The Herald-Patriot, having observed her 45th birthday:

"Old Molly, pictured above, may just be a member of the equine family to most persons, but to Howard Threlkeld, living about five miles southeast of Chariton, she is a family heirloom. This week Molly had a birthday --- her 45th --- and this, say those who know, makes Molly the oldest horse in Iowa and until other proof is established, the oldest in the United States. On her birthday, Howard got out the old carriage to which she has been hitched as part of a team so many times in bygone years and she lined up in position almost automatically. The carriage was purchased 40 years ago from the Rea Hardware Company, located where the Supply Store now stands, for the sum of $135."

Sadly, Molly's end was near and on May 11, 1948, The Chariton Leader reported her death: "Old Molly  had a birthday May 1 and had her picture taken. On May 5, Molly died. She was owned by Howard Threlkeld and had reached her 45th birthday. She was, at the time of her death, the oldest horse in Iowa."

+++

The setting for this tale is the Salem neighborhood, along the Blue Grass Road southeast of Chariton. 

Molly's owner, Howard Threlkeld (1884-1961), had moved to the farm on the corner just north of Salem School during 1895 with his parents, Austin B. and Sarah (McKinley) Threlkeld, and grew up there with an older brother, Roy.

Howard continued to farm there, living with his mother until her death at age 85 during October of 1942.

In no hurry to marry, he waited until he was 75 to wed Miss Alta Johnston, a neighbor and fellow member of the Salem Church congregation, on Sept. 11, 1960. She was 61 at the time.

Sadly, Howard died less than a year later --- on Feb. 23, 1961. Alta outlived Howard by more than 20 years, passing at the age of 87 during January of 1988. Howard and Alta are buried in the Russell Cemetery.

I have no information about the disposition of Molly's remains.

Brace Owings' 1939 snapshot of Chariton

Brace Owings (1894-1982), a veteran news professional who had worked in both California and his native Jasper County, arrived in Chariton during January of 1939 as the newly hired editor of The Chariton Herald-Patriot. He was in his mid-40s at the time and accompanied by Mrs. Owings --- Laura.

Berry F. Halden, his predecessor, had been on a leave of absence since the previous October, when he joined the staff at Republican state headquarters in Des Moines. He then resigned to accept the position of secretary of the State Executive Council.

Twenty years later, during January of 1959, Owings looked back from behind his Chariton Newspapers desk in an editorial published on the 22nd. That piece offers a snapshot of Lucas County's county seat as it was when Owings arrived.

More than 60 years later, Chariton seems almost another country --- but many of the names are familiar. See how many you recognize.

The photo was taken during 1955 as Owings, an exemplary Rotarian, was distributing literature before supper during that organization's party at the Ilion, or Mallory's Castle --- an anniversary celebration for Rotary and a community good-bye to the grand old house, demolished later that year.

+++

It was in January, 1939, that your Herald-Patriot editor joined the Chariton Newspapers. After this many years, we feel privileged to do a bit of looking backward ...

The Chariton Wholesale Grocery was operated by Dan and Perry Cunningham and Spencer Williams and bore little resemblance to the great enterprise that it has become under Hyde & Vredenburg.

The former Chariton Wholesale building is now occupied by the Bob Stone Cordage Co., operated by Bob and Keith Stone, who have made the firm the leading twine importer in the nation.

There was no Ryan Cable-Layer Co., selling its products over the nation and in foreign countries; no E. & D. Vault Co.

Combs Advertising covered only a small part of the area it now services; the Johnson Machine Works was a small firm of skilled men but its national reputation was still to be achieved. There was no Gross-Galesburg Co., or All-Wear Manufacturing Co.

The Curtis Broom Co., Chariton's oldest industry, was manufacturing its products, but Curt Yocom had not begun his food distribution firm, nor had the Engebretsen Game Farm started selling its game birds throughout the United States.

the Lucas County Co-op Creamery was flourishing, but dial phones were not to reach Lucas County until 1957.

In the business field, Ellis Foster at Spurgeon's, Fred Risser and Lester Smith at the First State Bank, Elmer Gookin, Ralph Van Dyke and A.R. Hass at the National Bank, Art Schuholtz associated with Harry Thomas, Chas A. Rowe and Harold Brightwell in the jewelry stores, Hugh Brown in the shoe filed, Harold Mann at ISU (Iowa Southern Utilities), now company president.

Bob and Arch Jones, Tom Nutt and R.L. Hopkins were all in the Rexall store while J.B. Roush was associated with the Roush Drug. Floyd Patterson had just moved to Chariton to take over the Ben Franklin Store, Jerry Gerbracht was operating the Ritz Theater, Aaron Lewis owned the Chevrolet garage, Chas. A. Fluke operated "Fluke's," now Young's. Jerome Oppenheimer operated a men's clothing store and R.E. Larimer operated the Chariton Loan and Investment Co.

Of course the recently retired Charles Ensley and the Tuttles were operating hardware stores, D.L. Smith & Co. was located at Williamson. The Dunshees operated a funeral home and hardware store.

Will D. Allender was operating the newspapers; John Baldridge had moved to Chariton a few months previously. Bill Eikenberry had taken over the lumber and feed business under the eye of his father, Wm. Eikenberry, and Frank Manning.

Businessmen of today who were operating then include Joyce Klepinger, Bob Piper, Robert Crozier, Ron Levis, Harry Thomas, Earl Roush, Ralph Downs, John Miley, Mike Shragol and Mrs. Noel Cloud. Ross Stobbard was operating the Kemble Floral Co. then as now and the Central Savings & Loan had just been opened by Kenneth Threlkeld. Others were Harold Johnson, then owner of a filling station, Keith Gartin, the Threlkelds, C.E. Dunn, Verne Baughman, Renus and Luther Johnson.

A.B. and Walter Gookin were in the insurance business as was Bud Malone.

Burt Gittinger operated the west side drug store. In the professional field, Dr. A.L. Yocom,  Dr. H.D. Jarvis, Dr. R.E. Anderson, Dr. Lazear Throckmorton and Dr. R.C. Gutch of today's medical doctors were practicing. Also in this field were Dr. C.L. Brittell and Dr. Delmar Sollis.

All of today's dentists were practicing 20 years ago, the only change being the late Dr. Edwin Stanton. The names of Richard Morr, Joe Kridelbaugh Jr. and William Stuart have been added in the legal  profession while those of the late Steve Hickman, Joe Kridelbaugh and J.D. Threlkeld have been erased. Art Adams was manager of the telephone company.

Recollections particularly those that are rather hurried and come easily to mind, are always dangerous in that someone left out may be offended. We hope not as this list is by no means presented as a complete one.

In the civic improvement field there was no swimming pool, addition to the  high school, athletic field, national guard armory, sewage disposal  plant, no airport and there were far, far fewer surfaced streets and few new homes had been constructed during the depression years. Coal mining was an important county industry.

Our point has been made. Twenty years in a community sees a lot of change. To our surprise we find ourselves among the senior businessmen. There are few in the Rotary Club for example who hold a longer membership.

Most of the writer's working hours have been spent in close association with the merchants. Few communities have been fortunate enough to have such a fine, cooperative group right through the years. It's amazing how the promotional and progressive spirit of the group has been retained. It has certainly made the two decades a personal pleasure.

Father time holds the key to the number of years that this relationship will continue, but we know they will be tops, whatever the span of time.

+++

Owings continued as Herald-Patriot editor until 1970. He retired that year and moved with Laura soon thereafter to Anaheim, California. He died there during 1982 at the age of 88. Laura died during 1988. There were no children.

The art and mystery of shaving hoops ....

I was roaming around Coal Glen (virtually) over the weekend when I chanced upon this item in The Chariton Democrat's Feb. 21, 1889, dispatch from Pleasant Township: "Hoop timber is suffering in this part of the country. There are five hoop shavers now at work --- John and Ed Perry, Ed Kitch, Wm. Woolridge and J.W. Foster. They are busy all the time and cut 2,500 hoops every day, or at the rate of that."

That was my introduction to the art and mystery of hoop shaving --- one of the ways our pioneer ancestors had of raising a little extra cash providing they owned a woodlot or had access to someone else's timber.

Here are a few other hoop shaving reports from the later years of the 19th century:

"Mr. Beaver, of Missouri is shaving hoops at the residence of John W. Foster, Mr. Ed Perry at John W. Smith's, Mr. John Perry, at Joseph Fluke's, Mr. Lew Foster at Al Garrett's. So you see the hoop poll business must be a paying one." (Belinda news, Chariton Democrat, 5 January 1888)

"The Berry Bros. are shaving hoops on the old Lyman Whitcomb place." (Bethel news, Chariton Patriot 4 December 1889)

"Lucas is becoming noted for hoop poles. Chase and Starks have been furnishing employment for seven to eight men shaving hoops, and now Reid and Aumick are opening up a shop and design using from eight to ten men. These shops are a local enterprise that will bless our laboring men and their families these dull winter days." (Chariton Herald, 16 January 1890)

"John Perry, who has been shaving hoops in the north part of the township, has gone to Olmitz to follow his trade." (Cedar Township news, Chariton Democrat, 13 Feb 1890)

"Mr. Weller, from Monroe County, is shaving hoops at Olmitz." (Olmitz news, Chariton Patriot, 8 October 1890)

"Billy Collison and Sherman Whitcomb are shaving hoops and boarding at I.F. Etters." (Cedar Township news, Democrat, 11 October 1895)

"George Mosbarger is doing a rushing business shaving hoops at Oakley and is paying the highest market price for hoop poles." (Liberty Township news, Chariton Herald, 2 Feb 1899)

A little research revealed the fact that those "shavers" actually were fashioning the wooden strips from which hoops would be formed later to bind barrels and kegs.

It was a common practice during the winter in wooded areas for enterprising men to cut poles and then, with a drawknife, shave strips off the poles an inch or so wide and about six or seven feet long. These strips would be just the outer part of the poles so the hoops would always have the bark as part of the hoop.

The shaved strips then were sold and shipped in bulk to barrel manufacturers, and many of Iowa's larger cities had at least one large cooperage, especially along the Mississippi river.  To make the strips pliable enough to form into hoops without breaking they were soaked in vats of water at the factory, then formed, hardened and used to bind staves into barrels or casks.

Most of the surviving barrels or casks from that era that we see occasionally are bound in hoops of metal --- more durable over the long haul than wood but also more expensive --- and remember  that a barrel was the 19th century equivalent of a cardboard box.

Matthew Shore & the relative nature of old age

I've shared this image of Matthew and Sarah Ann (McNeal) Shore and their nine children before, but was happy this week to be able to date it precisely after stumbling across the following reference in Pleasant Township news as published in The Chariton Democrat-Leader of Jan. 30, 1884: "On the 20th last, Matthew Shore and family were in Chariton and had a family group picture taken."

Unfortunately, the children are not identified on the photo --- from the Lucas County Historical Society collection --- so I can't tell you which is which, although I do recognize Archibald's luxuriant beard in the back row. Nor is the name of the photographer indicated.

Matthew and Sarah Ann were Pennsylvania natives --- he was born Aug. 17, 1827, and she was born Sept. 30, 1828, both in Huntington County. They married ca. 1849 in Pennsylvania and started their family there, moved west to Illinois during the mid-1850s, then moved on to Pleasant Township, Lucas County, during the Civil War.

Their children were: Sylvester (1849-1929), Mary (married Creighton Umphrey), Archibald (1853-1934), Ella (1855-1938; married Louis Duckworth), Emery James (1856-1905), George M. (1857-1935), Joseph A. (1863-1941), Elmer (1865-1833) and Charles (1868-1943).

Matthew died five years after this photograph was taken, on Dec. 2, 1889, so I decided to look farther and find out what it was killed him (it was the aftereffects of a stroke). And that brought me to this paragraph in The Democrat of Dec. 5, 1889: 

"We note with regret the death of Matthew Shore, an old resident of Pleasant township. Mr. Shore had been sick for some time but was not supposed to be serious. On Monday morning the message came when only his son and daughter-in-law were with him. Mr. Shore was a very old man being near the three score and ten limit."

Very old? The reporter here must have been very young --- even back in 1889, 62 was not considered "very old." So old age I guess has been and still is a relative thing.

Sarah Ann outlived Matthew by more than five years, dying May 9, 1895, also in Pleasant Township. They are buried along with many other members of the extended Shore family in Zion Cemetery, Pleasant Township.

Dave Darrah, wild turkeys & breaking the Sabbath

I have no explanation for the discrepancies in this little tale, reported upon in Chariton newspapers during June of 1896, commencing in The Herald of June 18 when it was duly recorded that, "The city marshal, David Hixson, and Constable J.W. Boylan arrested Joe Stoneking, David Darrah (left) and Clint Kelsey last Sunday on a complaint of Mrs. Morford that they had killed her turkeys. They were arraigned before Justice Long, charged with malicious mischief, and released on bail to stand trial on the 22nd of this month. They say they will fight the charge as hard as they can."

Mrs. Morford would have been Sarah Morford, whose husband, John, had died during 1889. All four were neighbors in the Coal Glen Church and Cemetery neighborhood of northeast Lucas County's Pleasant Township. Stoneking Cemetery is in the same general neighborhood, crowning a hilltop to the south. The Cedar Creek valley separates these two landmarks (Coal Glen Church has long since been demolished).

By the time the case came to trial, however, it appears that Mrs. Morford's turkeys had been identified as wild --- and somehow the charge had shifted from malicious mischief to breaking the Sabbath, a matter of considerable concern to many more than a century ago. 

Here's the report on that trial as published in The Chariton Patriot of June 25:

+++

The case of the State of Iowa vs. Joe Stoneking, David Darrah and Clint Kelsey was tried before Esq. Long on Monday. The charge was Sabbath breaking. A jury of six was empaneled to well and truly try the case and render such verdict thereon as the evidence would justify. 

Based upon an information made by one John Hulgan, the machinery of the law was put into motion to determine whether or not the said defendants were guilty of the offense charged. There were some 13 or 14 witnesses and the parties were all from Pleasant township.

The court, having some knowledge of the moral bailiwick from which the parties came, fully impressed with the gravity of the case, was doubtless surprised and grieved that such things as shooting turkeys, wild or otherwise, on Sunday should happen in the good old township of Pleasant.

The evidence disclosed the fact that David Darrah did shoot some meddlesome and inquisitive turkeys, which he alleged were feloniously scratching up his recently planted corn and swallowing the same right in his presence. It was a little more than the Darrah order of human nature could stand. He blazed away with intent to kill --- turkeys of course --- and with culpable indifference as to the day. He probably forgot it was Sunday. Such lapses of memory are not infrequent, we are told, when out looking for wild turkeys. 

Darrah admitted the shooting, other witnesses testified that Darrah was telling the truth. The evidence also disclosed that Stoneking and Kelsey did not fire a shot. They were simply "along." Armed of course, for what prudent Pleasant township man or boy would be without a gun when likely to be attacked and bitten by wild turkeys in the rugged and wooded hills over there? They were simply acting as a reserve, very probably, in case the turkeys were likely to get the best of Mr. Darrah.

This was the evidence, condensed because there were 13 or 14 indignant citizens present to tell the same story. It was carefully collated and entrusted to the tender mercies of the jury of six. They first ran Mr. Darrah through the mill, and as he had admitted his guilt and several others had vehemently sworn there could be no doubt of it, the jury very wisely acquitted him, but convicted Stoneking and Kelsey of the offense charged, though they had solemnly affirmed they just only "stood by" and never fired a shot.

Possibly the intelligent jury was fully convinced that two stalwart men with loaded guns in their hands who would stand idly by and not come to the rescue of a neighbor when he was about to be overcome by a lot of  marauding turkeys out to be convicted on general principles.

This was too much for the astute attorney for the defense. He applied a branch of parliamentary law to untie this ugly knot of criminal jurisprudence by which his clients were bound. He moved a reconsideration of the verdict. His honor sent the jury back to reconsider. They sat on the case long enough to incubate a new verdict of triumphant acquittal for all three of the prisoners. This was all on the grounds that it was a clear case of self defense and very proper as showing the beauties of this mid-summer administration of justice. "All's well that ends well."

The court foots the bill, amounting in this case to $50 or $60. The realization of this pleasant fact will be as cooling as a summer drink to the average farmer who is helping to keep this kind of a show running with his taxes.

+++

There were no followups, but all of the parties involved survived the confrontation by many years. Mrs. Morford now is at rest in the Coal Glen Cemetery; Joe Stoneking and Dave Darrah, in the Stoneking Cemetery. Clinton Kelsey is buried in the Ottumwa Cemetery.

Charitonians, hell and the Great Infidel

There was considerable excitement in the south of Iowa back in 1882 as Friday, the 24th of November, approached. Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, also known as "the Great Infidel," was the scheduled orator that evening at the Lewis Opera House in Ottumwa and orators were a principal source of entertainment at the time. Col. Ingersoll's topic --- "What shall we do to be saved?" --- was bound to spark interest.

Ingersoll, an attorney, distinguished Civil War veteran and first attorney general of Illinois, has sometimes been described as "the foremost orator and political speechmaker of late 19th century America — perhaps the best-known American of the post-Civil War era. (His portrait, above, is from the Library of Congress collection.)

"It was his private speaking career that made him famous. Tour after tour, he crisscrossed the country and spoke before packed houses on topics ranging from Shakespeare to Reconstruction, from science to religion. In an age when oratory was the dominant form of public entertainment, Ingersoll was the unchallenged king of American orators." Here's a good biography at the site, Free Inquiry.

We would call Col. Ingersoll a "liberal" today --- a champion of science, including Darwinism, free thought, equal rights for women and people of color; scornful of orthodox religion, hence the "Great Infidel" moniker. He had premiered his salvation speech in 1880 and it was guaranteed to draw a crowd --- inspiring some, infuriating others and piquing the curiosity of those between the two extremes.

Here's a sample of his reasoning that gives a good idea of why: “The doctrine that future happiness depends upon belief is monstrous. It is the infamy of infamies. The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called "faith." What man, who ever thinks, can believe that blood can appease God? And yet, our entire system of religion is based upon that belief. The Jews pacified Jehovah with the blood of animals, and according to the Christian system, the blood of Jesus softened the heart of God a little, and rendered possible the salvation of a fortunate few. It is hard to conceive how the human mind can give assent to such terrible ideas, or how any sane man can read the Bible and still believe in the doctrine of inspiration.” ("On the Gods and Other Essays," 1876)

+++

Quite a number of Charitonians, a majority of them free-thinkers, reserved seats ($1 each) and made plans to be in Ottumwa on the evening of the 24th. L. L. Arnold, then resident C.B.&Q. trainmaster, arranged for a special coach to be attached to eastbound No. 4 late in the afternoon so that the party would arrive in Ottumwa with plenty of time for supper. The car then was detached at the Ottumwa Depot and reattached to westbound No. 1 for the trip home to Chariton early the next morning, estimated time of arrival 2 a.m.

We don't know the names of everyone aboard that car, but The Chariton Democrat-Herald did publish a partial list a few days before: Dr. and Mrs. (William H.) Gibbon, Mr. and Mrs. D.M. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Christian, Mr. and Mrs. M.P. Baker, Mr. and Mrs. Evan Lewis, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wormley, Mr. and Mrs. D.J. Ewing, Mr. and Mrs. L.L. Arnold, Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Hull, Miss Annie Gibbon, Miss Thompson, Mr. D.M. Baker, Dr. McKlveen and Olive Hull.

It's not clear how many Lucas Countyans were in Ottumwa that evening, but The Ottumwa Daily Democrat of Nov. 25 reported, "A large number of Chariton and Albia people came down last night to hear the great Ingersoll. Chariton was particularly well represented."

Of Ingersoll's speech, Chariton's Democrat-Leader reported only that "our space is too limited to give even a synopsis of the lecture delivered by Col. Ingersoll at Ottumwa Friday night. But those of our readers who are particularly anxious to know what he said and how he said it can have their curiosity satisfied by calling on Dr. Gibbon. We sat near Doc and if there was a man in the hall who took it all in, he certainly did. He says he would go farther and pay out more money to hear Bob Ingersoll than to hear Dr. Fitch."

The tongue-in-cheek reference here was to Dr. Gibbon's Chariton colleague, Dr. Charles Fitch, something of an outspoken infidel himself.

+++

The Ottumwa Democrat did carry a complete report on the Ingersoll lecture, but gave equal time --- more than equal time actually, four and a half columns of rather small type --- to the Rev. G.S. Bailey's response, delivered at the Baptist church in Ottumwa on Sunday evening, Nov. 26; headlined, "Ingersollism Exposed." Here's how he began:

"Our city has just been visited by Robert G. Ingersoll, the leading infidel and scorner of Christianity. Multitudes go to hear him, some from curiosity, some from admiration of his coarse wit, some from his bold and reckless abuse of the Bible and religion, ministers and churches. Yet few except the vicious and vulgar desire to hear him a second time. It is no small credit to our city that so many who make no pretentions to personal piety stayed at home last Friday night, not wishing to hear everything sacred and holy treated with contempt and blackguardism."

The editor of The Oskaloosa Standard, also in Ottumwa for Col. Ingersoll's speech, took up far less space as he consigned the Great Infidel to hell. Here is his response: "We heard Pope Bob Ingersoll at Ottumwa last Friday night, on 'Talmagian Theology,' and will only say that for variegated, sumptuous, stilted, stake and ridered blasphemy he is unparalleled. By the time he toasts and bakes and fries in hell a thousand years he will revise his definition of it and conclude that he understands the geography of it. He says now, 'Blasphemy is what a mistake says of a fact.' Then he will swear, 'hell is a fact!' "

"Talmagian Theology" refers to the Rev. Thomas De Witt Talmage, the Billy Graham of his day although Presbyterian and considerably more colorful, who preached in Brooklyn and spread the word across the Americas via newspaper columns. His, too, was a name widely known in Chariton.

In honor of 2nd Lt. Lorance F. Krashowetz, 1916-45

I spent some time on a hot Friday afternoon updating my database of young people from Lucas County who gave up their lives in service to the United States during World War II, including 2nd Lt. Lorance F. Krashowetz, 28, killed on April 26, 1945, when his B-26 Marauder was shot down over Germany. Here's the entry as it stands now:

+++

KRASHOWETZ, LORANCE F., U.S. Army Air Forces second lieutenant, age 28, of Chariton, Iowa, and Detroit, Mich. Son of Frank L. and Edna Krashowetz, husband of Emma (Ellis); born Oct. 13, 1916; living and working in Detroit at the time of his induction during May of 1943. Plane shot down over Germany with loss of six-man crew, including Lorance, on April 26, 1945. Buried Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold, France (Plot B, Row 21, Grave 53). Cenotaph at Calvary Cemetery, Chariton, near the graves of his parents.

Lorance was the youngest of three children --- born Oct. 13, 1916, in a mining camp called Maple west of Lovilla in Monroe County to Frank L. Krashowetz, a miner native to Slovenia, and Edna F. (Deskins) Krashowetz, his wife. The family moved into Albia when the Maple mine closed and then, after 1920, to Chariton when Frank found work in Lucas County's Pleasant Township coalfields.

Lorance attended school in Chariton and graduated from Chariton High School with the class of 1934. Not long before graduation, on March 12, 1934, he was married in Jefferson to Adda Delia Callahan, 19, also of Chariton. There is no indication that this marriage ever got off the ground; they were divorced during 1937. On May 29, 1939, Lorance --- by this time a resident of Detroit --- married  Emma Ellis in Chariton and this marriage endured until cut short by war.

Jobs were few and far between during the 1930s and Lorance was one of thousands drawn to Detroit where jobs were available in heavy industry. In all likelihood, he could have gone to work in Lucas County's coal mines, but chose not to. By 1940, he was working as a truck driver for the Chrysler-owned Motor Parts Corp. and, during 1943, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Lt. Krashowetz, bombardier, was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron, 17th Bomb Group, flying out of Dijon-Longvic Air Base about 160 miles southeast of Paris when he was killed on April 26, 1945, after completing 31 bombing missions.

Flying with a six-man crew, the target of his Martin B-26 Marauder was the Lechfeld Luftwaffe Base west of Munich and south of Augsburg, flight training center and test base for the Messerschmitt Works in Augsburg proper. The Marauder was last sighted at 11:52 a.m. on April 26 over Neuburg an der Donau, northeast of Augsburg. It was shot down soon thereafter by a Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter.

The crew, in addition to Lorance, consisted of 2nd Lt. Kenneth L. Bedor, pilot; 2nd Lt. Charles J. Howard, co-pilot; Staff Sgt. Paul D. Geitgey, gunner; Sgt. Alfred E. Belt Jr., radio operator and gunner; and John J. Milkovich, gunner.

After the war, the remains of all six crewmen were recovered. Those of Bedor, Howard (of  Omaha), Geitgey and Belt were repatriated. The remains of Lorance and of Milkovich were interred in the Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold, France, where they remain. Lorance also is commemorated on a cenotaph located near the graves of his parents in Calvary Cemetery, Chariton. He was awarded  posthumously the Air Medal with Two Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart.

+++

Courtesy of Wikipedia, here's a close-up view of a B-26 bomber that shows where Lt. Krashowetz, as bombardier, would have been stationed --- behind the plexiglass nose cone where, when not preparing to drop the aircraft's bomb load, he operated a 50-caliber machine gun. The pilot and co-pilot sat side by side in armored seats behind an armored bulkhead. The navigator, who also served as the radio operator and sometimes gunner, worked out of a small compartment behind the pilots with more gunners deployed to the rear.