The disappearing nature of Iowa time capsules

I ran across an Iowa story this morning that struck a familiar chord. The Register headline reads, "Iowa town asks: Where did we put our time capsule?" 

The town involved is northwest Iowa's Sheldon, which is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. Part of the celebration was scheduled for Friday --- a time capsule buried 50 years ago during a centennial observance was to be dug up, opened, new items inserted to mark the new anniversary, then reburied. Coffee and birthday cake served thereafter.

Unfortunately, the exact location of the capsule in a city park has been lost and ground-penetrating radar will have to be brought in to find it. So cake and coffee will be served, but the disinterment of the time capsule will have to wait for another day.

Something similar happened in Chariton back in 1976, as the city was preparing to join the nation in a bicentennial celebration. But in Chariton, the very existence of a time capsule had been forgotten --- until early in the year when Chariton attorney Paul Christoffers happened onto a brief reference to it in a State Historical Society of Iowa publication.

During the months that followed, every site thought likely as a repository for the box --- which it was agreed had not been buried --- was searched. Finally, in time for a July 4, 1976 unveiling, the cast iron container with contents intact was found in the vault at the Masonic Temple.

So our story has a happy ending; here's hoping that Sheldon's will, too. 

For those interested the Bicentennial Box and its contents are kept in the Lucas County Historical Society Museum library. A much larger box was filled and sealed during 1976 to be opened during 2076. That box is in the library, too. Don't forget --- if you plan to be around for that opening.

David, Goliath & a debate of biblical proportions

Russell's George Washington Riker (1837-1916) was among that Lucas County city's most public free-thinker, demonstrating in public and in print little patience with the religious conventions of his day. Back in 1906, as Christmas approached, he had written a poem --- published in The Chariton Leader by his friend Henry Gittinger who identified him as Russell's "the Poet Agnostic" --- that included the lines:

Preachers seem an abomination

To the growth of civilization,

Their hatred and tantalization

Drive many men to desperation.

Now, Bless my life, what consolation,

That I am free from priestcraftication!

Six years later, George happened to on the square in Chariton of a Saturday morning during mid-July when he encountered Liberty Center's David Yoakam, in town on an impromptu evangelistic mission and preaching to the lost near the courthouse. George challenged him. Gittinger happened to be present (he was a Russell native and long-time friend of the Rikers). The following report of the encounter was published in The Leader of July 18, 1912.

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By chance, George Washington Riker, of Russell, and David Yoakam, of Liberty Center, met each other near the north entrance to the courthouse Saturday forenoon. Mr. Yoakam carried a Bible under his arm and was doing a little evangelistic work when Mr. Riker came onto the scene. In a moment it was apparent that their beliefs were at a variance, Mr. Yoakam being strong in the faith of sanctification and regeneration while Mr. Riker denies the inspiration of the scriptures.

As they talked, a crowd began to gather until about 200 were in the audience. David struck the Goliath many raps with his slingshots of faith, but with little or no avail until he proclaimed George to be about the hardest specimen he had ever tried to convince of his error and wanted to know why he didn't go and live with the heathen where he belonged and offered to pay his passenger fare to the darkest realm.

George Washington declined the favor and attacked the scriptures anew with the hatchet of his infidelity and accused David of being mentally deluded.

Thus for an hour and a  half they wrestled, alternately hurling at each other the most cutting sarcasm possible to imagine, but personally in good nature.  Yoakam now knows Riker and Riker now knows Yoakam --- they know each other. That was about the  outcome of the meeting.

The crowd seemed to enjoy the pithy statements of each party. It was like two irresistible forces striking each other under full heads of steam.

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If you'd like to read more about George W. Riker, including the complete text of his pre-Christmas poem, follow this link to a post entitled, "Russell's Riker declares war on the clergy."

A Monday morning with Stephen Charleston

I've written here a couple of times about my respect for the words of Stephen Charleston --- a citizen of the Choctaw Nation and retired Episcopal priest. Charleston served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska, 1991-1996, and then as dean and president of the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass., 1999-2008. He's currently based in Oklahoma City where, in addition to writing and teaching, he shares commentary and community via Facebook.

Here's his description, posted yesterday, written as a summer storm swept over the land: "Tonight the drums of the ancestors resound among the dark clouds. Shafts of brilliant light tear open the sky to let the rain pour in from heaven on high. Creation is alert to the power of the holy. Earth opens her arms to the falling rain. All creatures great and small listen to the passing of the storm. It is a sacred time, an invitation to humility. We are such small parts of the greater whole. We are small beings huddled together on a rainy night. We are part of a great pattern, an endless life, a sacred love, that floats across time and space, clouds like ships, sailing the storm-tossed sea."

And this morning admonition from a few days ago: "Awake, sleeper, to the beauty around you. Rise up from your dreams to catch the scent of a new day. The Earth opens its arms to you, inviting you into a bright morning of sacred love. Step out into the world with confidence. Walk in certainty. Be fully alert to the messages in every flower, the whisper of every cloud passing overhead. This creation was made for all of us, a gift of discovery beyond description. Walk in beauty, each step a prayer, until the evening comes, the peace of eternity wrapping you in its blanket of stars, dreaming visions of the holy, until the last light lingers, alone in the stillness of the night."

One thing sometimes strikes me on Sundays as those of us who still go to church gather in defensive structures designed to shield us behind stained glass, or more often now in windowless auditoriums, from nature all around. In fact, what we are shielding ourselves from inside offers much of what we're seeking, freely accessible, outside.

A Sunday afternoon joyride with Dr. Charles Fitch

I've written several times about Dr. Charles Fitch (1825-1889), among Chariton's earliest physicians. After arriving in 1852, fresh from the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Cleveland, he developed a multi-county practice that he served until death. Here's a link to his 1889 obituary, and a quote from it:

"Dr. Fitch was the only doctor for this new and wild territory, but nature and education had fitted him for it. He was robust in constitution and intrepid in character and possessed of a skill in medicine and surgery equal to the best. He has long been known as heroic in his treatment of patients, and he was certainly heroic in his exposures and fatiguing journeys to reach them. In those early days, the nights were never so dark, the storm never so severe, the bridgeless streams never so swollen, that he would not at once get astride his horse and start across trackless prairies and through deepest woods to get to the bedside of a sick patient."

And, "Up until a very few years ago, he was in his buggy almost continually going from bedside to bedside and riding in sunshine and in rain, under July suns and in January blizzards, in the heat of the day and the darkness of night."

Dr. Fitch apparently was a practical joker, too --- and one of his "jokes" was to introduce unsuspecting newcomers to the Lucas County territory by inviting them to accompany him on one of his marathon house-call journeys --- without warning them the trip was going to be a marathon.

Here's an account from The Chariton Leader of Aug. 17, 1878, of how a Sunday afternoon joyride went for L. E. Mayr, who had recently established a jewelry business on the square.

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On Sunday afternoon, Dr. Fitch, the most irrepressible practical joker in Iowa, drove along through the square with his nice rig till he espied our young friend, L.E. Mayr, the jeweler, lounging comfortably in the shade. "Take a little ride Mayr," says Doc. "Where you going Doc?" was the reply. "Oh, out in the country a little ways --- get in, it will do you good," was Doc's genial answer. The bait was tempting, and as he had never rode with Old Doc before, he climbed in.

Monday afternoon, L.E. Mayr climbed slowly and solemnly out of Doc.'s buggy in front of Storie's drug store, looking pale, thin, hungry and careworn, as though time had held its hands heavily upon his shoulders.

"Where've you been," said we anxiously a few minutes afterwards. "Taking a little ride with Doc. Fitch into the country," said he with a ghastly smile that caused the cold chills to run over us. "Been riding all night and all day and part of yesterday, about eighteen hours, over the roughest hills, brakes, brush and infernalist country on this continent with nothing to keep me from freezing but this thin coat," said he. We smiled sadly and remarked that Doc. Fitch often took men out riding with him into the country. Mayr don't want to go any more.

Henry Ward Beecher among the Lucas Countyans

There's little doubt that the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), a Congregationalist, was the most widely known preacher of his day, hugely influential in a period that stretched from before the Civil War to his death.

A noted abolitionist, his sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." After he war he championed women's suffrage as well as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, declaring it not incompatible with Christian teaching.

But his most evident legacy --- although its source is not often remembered --- is the focus on God's love rather than God's wrath that permeates much of what we call mainstream Christianity today. His was a cultural antidote to Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" approach that had sparked the first Great Awakening in the Americas and permeated much of the theology that was developed in its aftermath.

And like many popular preachers, then and now, there was a juicy sex scandal. Good looking in his younger years and distinguished as he aged, he had great charisma. So there always had been rumors that he was challenged in the fidelity department. In 1872, an account of his alleged affair with Elizabeth Richards Tilton, wife of friend and former co-worker Theodore Tilton, was published in an influential magazine. In 1874, Mr. Tilton filed charges for "criminal conversation" against him. The trial resulted in a hung jury --- and in published reports that the American public found endlessly fascinating for weeks on end.

It was against this background that the Rev. Mr. Beecher stepped off a train in Chariton on Aug. 7, 1878, prepared to address a crowd that evening. On a lecture tour, he had appeared earlier in Oskaloosa and planned a further Iowa stop in Red Oak before crossing the Plains with California the eventual destination. He was traveling with his wife and manager.

About 300 Lucas Countyans had gathered at the depot to greet him, but he fooled the curious when the train made an especially arranged stop at the Bates House crossing, west of the square, and the Beecher party detrained and walked to the hotel for refreshment and rest prior to his evening address.

The site of the lecture was the Methodist Tabernacle, a giant tent that Chariton Methodists had acquired and first erected in 1877 as a site for revival meetings and other elevating gatherings. That year, it stood for several weeks in northwest Chariton. Where it had been planted in 1878, I don't know. Admission was $1 a head and the address began at 8:30 p.m. Here's The Chariton Leader's report as published on Aug. 10.

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An audience of nearly 800 assembled in the Methodist Tabernacle on Wednesday night to greet this distinguished lecturer. The night was very warm, but the tent had been arranged to afford all the ventilation possible.

At half past eight the speaker came onto the stand, and in a few minutes began his address on the subject of "The Wastes and Burdens of Society," and for nearly two hours he held his large audience in ecstasy under the magic influences of his sensible remarks.

A lengthy review of his speech would be interesting alike to all, but lack of space prevents it, but as a whole his lecture was the embodiment of sense, wit, logic, literature and elocution. His voice is grand and seems to be adapted to addressing immense audiences, while beautiful ideas and profound thoughts flow from him with an apparent ease that makes lecturing a pleasure to him and a delight to his hearers.

We have never yet seen an audience so well pleased over a lecture, and the general expression is, a dollar well spent. For our part we think it was the best practical lecture we ever heard from any man, for while it was largely instructive, full of splendid original ideas and suggestions, it was delivered in a manner worthy of a true orator.

Mr. Beecher went from Chariton to Red Oak and will continue his journey on to California where he has been engaged to deliver ten lectures for ten thousand dollars and his expenses.

Bastardy, desertion, and the babe on a manure pile

Among the curiosities of this little story headlined "Bastardy and Desertion" and published in The Chariton Democrat of June 28, 1870, is the fact that editor John V. Faith accompanied Sheriff Gaylord Lyman --- who would be shot and killed by horse thief Hiram Wilson a few days later on July 6 --- on his investigation. It makes for a more reliable story, I suppose, but is odd by today's standards.

Among the other players here are Darius Wilcox, who discovered the newborn infant atop a manure pile in southwest Chariton, and John H. Bramhall, to whom the manure pile belonged. Both were rising young Chariton merchants of the day. I've illustrated this piece with advertisements they placed in The Democrat of that time. Both moved on --- Bramhall to Florida and Wilcox to Nebraska --- so neither is widely remembered here.

In any case, here's the story as published in The Democrat. The name of the defendant in the case, Alexander Lockey, is spelled "Lockie" in Faith's early reports. 

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On last Wednesday morning, considerable excitement was created in town by the finding of a newly-born infant child, lying upon a manure pile, at Mr. Bramhall's stable in the southwestern part of the city, which seemed to have been left there during the night.

Sometime during the night, a servant in the family of Mr. Wilcox, who lives next door to Mr. Bramhall, heard the cries of a child and as soon as daylight appeared search was commenced. Mr. Wilcox found the child as above stated without the least covering, and exposed to the chill air, and with a feeling of pity and alarm that can be better imagined than described, took it up in his arms and instinctively carried it to Mr. Bramhall's house, and arousing him, begged him "for God's sake" to take the poor thing in.

But "Bram" didn't know it, and begged of Mr. Wilcox for God's sake, take it away, and there they stood for some minutes, each pleading to the other to take it until Mrs. Bramhall, good, motherly soul that she is, came to the door and without any ado about it, took the little waif into the house, washed, clothed and fed it, and poor Wilcox went home rejoicing, and then the alarm was raised.

Upon investigation it appeared that the child had been brought there by some person on horseback, but no other clue could be found. All the sources from which such an episode might be expected to originate were canvassed, and a general inquiry was instituted, but all without avail, until near noon, when it was whispered that a man named Lockie, living about two miles south east of town, had been running things on the Brigham Young principle, regularly cohabitating with his his wife's sister, a girl named Lizzie McCarty, whose confinement was being daily expected.

A warrant was issued by Justice Woodward, and Sheriff Lyman, accompanied by Dr. Kneeland and the editor of the Democrat, made a visit to Lockie's residence the same evening. Mrs. Lockie refused to answer any questions, informing the sheriff that probably her sister could speak for herself. The girl was found confined to her bed upstairs, and at first declined to divulge anything upon the subject, but the doctor told her that by freely answering his questions she could avoid an unpleasant examination which he would be compelled to subject her to. She then frankly confessed that she had been confined the night before, but that she knew nothing of her child, nor any of the circumstances attending her confinement (giving out the impression that she was under the influence of chloroform during her labor).

With a feeling of interest that she did not try to conceal, she asked whether they knew where her baby was, and whether it was alive and upon being told that it was alive, in good hands and doing well, she pleaded with the doctor to fetch it to her, and seemed unwilling to let him off without his promise to do so. She was also alarmed at which she seemed to consider a terrible crime upon her part, and begged that she should not be killed.

Mr. Lockie was not at home, his wife stating that he was in town at work, upon Dr. Heed's stable. The sheriff and the doctor, fully satisfied with the result of their visit, we returned to town, and the sheriff at once proceeded to arrest Lockie. He was taken before Squire Woodward and gave bonds in the sum of $800 for his appearance on Monday, W.H. Simpson becoming his bondsman.

The child was taken to its mother the same evening, since which time we have not heard from either. We have given the above plain statement of what seems to be the circumstances, and as the case will come up for a legal investigation, we do not feel at liberty to state conclusions in advance of the trial of the accused, trusting that, whatever the facts may be, justice will be given him.

Much credit is due to Mr. Bramhall and his excellent wife, for the real humane spirit they manifested. They did what any good man or good woman should do, and they will receive the commendation of all who know the circumstances.

Tuesday, 6 a.m. --- The examination of Lockie commenced before Squire Woodward yesterday morning and is being continued today. Considerable circumstantial evidence has been given, which seems to have but a remote bearing on the case. No direct testimony has, as yet, been elicited.

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As it turned out, no one had witnessed Mr. Lockey deposit the infant on the manure pile and he declined to admit doing so. As a result, according to The Democrat of July 5, he was released:

"That Baby Case --- The examination of Alex. Lockie before Squire Woodward upon charge of having exposed an infant child in an open field, was concluded on Tuesday of last week, and resulted in the discharge of the prisoner. The State failed to produce any positive evidence of Lockie's connection with the affair, and the case resulted as above stated. E.M. Thorpe, Esq. prosecuted, and Mr. Wilkerson defended."

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By July 19, the Lockey family had sold out and moved on, according to a report in The Democrat of that date. The "woodbine twineth" reference may be to their possible destination, the town of Woodbine in southwest Iowa's Harrison County where the newspaper is entitled, logically enough, The Woodbine Twiner. Here's John V. Faith's brief report:

Left --- Lockey, the man who was under arrest recently, charged with being the man who left an infant child upon Mr. Bramhall's manure pile, has sold out and gone "where the woodbine twineth." There are those who regret that it became unpleasant for Mr. Lockey to remain here. In losing him they lose a man who was an ardent church member and who voted the Radical ticket straight through. It was a sorry thought that Lockey drove his own wife from under his roof and that in a short time thereafter her sister became the mother of the child that was found exposed as above stated.

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The last reference I was able to find to the Lockey affair was a paragraph in The Chariton Patriot of April 23, 1873, three years later. After this, the trail goes cold.

Lockey --- We understand that the man Lockey, who lived on a farm a few miles east of our town a few year ago, and who will be remembered by our readers as living with two women in such intimacy as to be contrary to the statutes made and provided, and who was arrested for having carried an infant child  of his own blood to our town, and leaving it exposed in one of our alleys in the southwest part of town, is now living in Cass county. He is also  reported to have been before the Grand Jury of that county for the purpose of investigating his  right to cohabit with the two women, who are sisters and one of whom at least is not his wife.

A modified year of jubilee for students ....

I spent some time on Twitter this morning, saving a few items related to President Biden's student debt forgiveness plan, announced Wednesday, that struck my fancy.

The plan would cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 per year, or under $250,000 for married couples who file jointly. Those who received Pell grants, federal aid for lower-income students, could see up to $20,000 in forgiveness.

The graphic at the top is part of the Biden administration's spin on the proposal. Others just gathered here and there from the shockingly liberal crew I follow on that social medium.

I had student loans, too, way back when --- at a time when the costs of education at a public university in Iowa were far more manageable. Of course I also had provident parents, income from black Angus cattle and, once home from Vietnam, veteran benefits. 

I paid the loans back myself, sure --- but it was a relatively painless process involving relatively little money in an entirely different time.

So I'm happy about the forgiveness plan, pleased with the investment in the futures of so many (for the most part) young people.

Our Republican friends are out there now squawking and flapping their wings about the plan. Were the money headed for their constituents --- megabusiness, megafarms, megachurches and the like --- the song and dance would be far different.

Grassley, for example, has collected some $368,000 in public funds for various farm-related disaster and subsidy payments during the last 20 years or so. Haven't heard him call that unfair.

A very fine tombstone indeed ...

This fine chunk of granite marks the graves at Salem Cemetery, southeast of Chariton, of Phoebe May (Arnold) and William H. Holmes, erected by a grieving husband a year after his wife had been killed in the most familiar sort of vehicular accident of the day --- a runaway.

Mr. Holmes was so pleased with the monument that he endorsed it in a brief news (or "advertorial" as it sometimes is called these days) item on the front page of The Chariton Leader of March 20, 1913: "I wish to say to those wanting a good monument and well lettered to call on the Chariton Granite and Marble Works. Mr. Harding erected a monument on my lot at Salem, which I am well pleased with, and I can recommend him as an all around  workman in his line.  W.H. Holmes"

William and May Holmes were prosperous farmers during 1912, when the accident occurred --- located on land  south of Salem Church and Cemetery on the east side of the New York Road just beyond the Chariton River bottoms.

May was a daughter of Edward and Sophia (Barnhart) Arnold and William H., a son of Daniel and Mary Holmes, both old Benton Township families. They had married during 1879 and had seven children, the oldest three married; the younger four still at home.

May and son George, then 23, had driven into Chariton on June 26, 1912, on the Bluegrass Road behind a "green" team of colts. As they approached the South 8th Street crossing, headed for the square, a train whistle spooked the colts, they bolted and both May and George were thrown from the buggy. She died a few hours later of her injuries, he was only slightly injured.

William Holmes remarried during 1915 --- to the widow Alice McKinley Dorsey --- and lived to celebrate his 91st birthday before he died on March 18, 1948, and was buried beside May at Salem.

By that time, Olin Dexter Harding (1869-1933), who had begun work at the Chariton Granite and Marble Works during 1908, had died --- and someone else took charge of engraving Mr. Holmes' dates on his distinctive tombstone.

This image of William and May Holmes, probably their wedding photograph, was found in a Redlingshafer-Arnold family album.

Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour set for Sept. 18

The annual Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour, sponsored by the Chariton Historic Preservation Commission, is less than a month away. Hard to believe time moves this fast!

This year's tour, focused on what we've declared to be "South Hill" --- atop the hill in the southeast corner of the cemetery --- will begin at 4  p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18, in that area of the cemetery.

Five volunteers will portray five figures from Lucas County's past whose remains are buried there --- Mabel Ann Black, a nurse, who will tell her own story and that of her two brothers, Tom and Walter, two of the county's four Spanish American War losses; Lewis Bonnett, among the most  prominent of our early farmers; Isabelle Greer Redlingshafer, a Benton Township pioneer; Isaac N. Threlkeld, a Lincoln Township pioneer; and Samuel White Walthall (left), one of three War of  1812 veterans buried in the cemetery.

Admission is free, but free-will donations to support Preservation Commission projects will be accepted. Now go mark this date on your calendar!

 

The marital adventures of Adelia and David

Then --- back in the good old days --- as now, the marital and extramarital escapades of celebrities were reported upon extensively and provided considerable entertainment. But newspapers in places like Chariton reported with relish on the adventures of locals, too.

The Herald-Patriot of March 4, 1909, dedicated a detailed front-page paragraph each to six divorces on the docket for trial during the March term of Lucas County District Court. And then there was this, under the headline "Suit for Breach of Promise" ---

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David Bell, a wealthy aged widower of Chariton, is made defendant in a suit for breach of promise brought by Adelia Herman, aged 51 years, also of Chariton. The case will come up in the next term of court which sets here next Monday. The amount sued for is $10,000.

In her petition, the Herman woman alleges that the defendant entered into a promise of marriage with her and, relying on his promise, she informed her acquaintances and made her arrangements for the wedding, and she also refused other offers of marriage which she declares would have been advantageous to her.

Plaintiff alleges "that defendant has since repeatedly and persistently refused to marry her though often requested by plaintiff to do so." She further states that "she is a good housekeeper, and could and would make a good and faithful wife, and that she has but small financial means; that defendant is an old man, more than 70 years of age, and is worth in money and property in an amount exceeding $50,000." 

She further states that because of defendant's failure to marry her she has been made to suffer great humiliation, and that in addition to this she has been damaged greatly in a financial way." Therefore she asks damage in the sum of $10,000.

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David was 75 at the time and Mrs. Herman, actually 52. He was wealthy, as reported, but not a widower. He was estranged from Mrs. Bell, nee Sarah Chambers (1839-1918), but she was very much alive and living in Smith County, Kansas, where three of their four adult sons also lived.

Adelia had three marriages under her belt, all of which had ended in divorce --- first to Albert Parker, by whom she had two adult children; then to John Dismore, whom she divorced in 1902; and finally to Mr. Herman.

The case of Herman vs. Bell did not make it to trial --- David and Adelia settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. She was then sued by her attorney for failure to pay his fees --- and that was settled out of court, too.

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David, whose mental faculties may have been experiencing slippage, ran into trouble a year later, during January of 1910. He had traveled to Knoxville, checked into a hotel, then left the hotel inadequately dressed during the night and nearly froze to death before found wandering around town the next morning.

Badly frostbitten, he was taken charge of by his sons and whisked away to Kansas, where he died on March 10 as the result of a stroke. His remains were returned to Iowa by his sons and buried in the Columbia Cemetery near the graves of three children who had died earlier.

Sarah died in Kansas during 1918 and their sons erected at their respective graves nearly identical and substantial gray granite tombstones, his at Columbia, hers in Kansas.

By 1910, Adelia and John Dismore had reunited and remained together until his death at age 80 on July 6, 1930. Adelia died seven years later, on Aug. 30, 1937. They are buried together in the Chariton Cemetery.

Lift your eyes heavenward, Chariton Presbyterians

Lift your eyes toward heaven this morning, Chariton Presbyterians, and consider your ceiling. That magnificent art glass dome remains in place, as do the glorious windows east, south and west. But the decoration on the surfaces surrounding them, originally bordered, frescoed and frilled to within an inch of their lives, has disappeared behind multiple coats of tasteful cream-colored paint.

This vintage image of the nave dates from February of 1910 --- just a year after the new church building had been dedicated on Feb. 28, 1909. Designed by a Des Moines architectural firm, Carl C. Cross & Sons, the building stands on the site of the congregation's first building, dating from the 1850s, at the intersection of East Braden Avenue and North 8th Street.

Members of Chariton's Old Thirteen Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, had moved in after morning services on that Sunday during late February 1910 to bedeck the nave with flags and bunting  in preparation for its annual "Chapter Sermon" service that evening --- open to all, but designed specifically for D.A.R. members. Then they immortalized the project with a snapshot pasted in the chapter scrapbook, now in the Lucas County Historical Society collection.

Actually, the room looks much the same --- with the exception of the pipe organ (Estey Opus 2860), not installed until late 1929 and ready for its premiere on Jan. 12, 1930. The organ chamber was part of the original design, but funding for the instrument itself did not become available until 20 years later.

In honor of Alma Clay --- and teachers in general

Classes resume in the Chariton school district on Tuesday, so I've been thinking about the teachers who will be on hand to greet students next week --- noble souls for the most part who enter a profession guaranteed not to make them rich, committed to the welfare and nurture of their charges. 

Alma Clay (1872-1928) was one those, in her time perhaps the most widely known and admired, now largely forgotten. The portrait here is from the Lucas County Historical Society collection.

Born in Sweden, Miss Clay arrived in the United States (and Chariton) at the age of 9 and was an 1889 graduate of Chariton High School. She taught rural schools for three years, then joined the elementary school staff in Chariton where she remained for 34 years, rising eventually to principal.

Stricken by cancer in 1926, she died two years later. During the weeks prior to her death, the school district decided to rename the its former high school "Alma Clay" in her honor. And so it remained until the summer of 1970, when torn down.

Victor Swartzendruver was editor of The Herald-Patriot at the time of Miss Clay's passing on Sept. 26 1928. Here's his tribute to her, published in The Herald-Patriot of that week:

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Nothing that is now written in praise of Alma Clay, long time teacher and noble woman of Chariton,, will be seen by her, nor will she smile that gracious peaceful smile at this mention of her name. But this writer, privileged to hold acquaintance and to be associated with her a few times in small tasks of school and community interest, would not be making an honest use of this column if he neglect to call attention at this time to the  spirit and genius of she who has passed.

Alma Clay was an unusual woman and she did unusual things in that she dedicated her life to service, and so gave it. She had a remarkable aptitude, a natural endowment that is not given to many persons, and hundreds of young people and some not so young in Chariton are better men and women because of Alma Clay. Miss Clay taught gentleness because she sensed the obligation owing to him who made us, and to the common nature which we all share. She taught honesty because she realized honesty means honor. She taught humility because she understood that true humility is a right estimate of our selves as seen by the creator of all. She taught industry because she realized that all time is lost that might have been employed to a better purpose. She taught all the virtues because she recognized the fundamentals of useful living, and these she impressed on her students. She was a remarkable teacher because she did more than teach the book text, efficient as she was in this.

And so Miss Clay is gone, and if the reader can find nothing else from her life to remember and think about, let it be occasionally recalled that the life and being of Miss Alma Clay among Chariton people was proof that persons noble beyond ordinary do yet move among us. Her service at Chariton was a thing of use and beauty, and let her example give us faith, and impress us that it is possible in this worldly age to approach even yet the high minded state that is intended for us.

The latest in customer service at Piper's --- in 1912

I shared this image of Chariton's landmark Piper's Grocery --- now owned and operated by Jill Kerns ---back in 2017, shortly after Miriam Hibbs donated it to the Lucas County Historical Society. The photo was taken during 1911 and Piper (far left) and his four clerks are standing in front. They are (from left) Pete West, R. Findley, Albert Westling (Miriam's father) and Frank Tinder.

And over to the right, parked alongside, is Piper's horse-powered delivery wagon. Joe was an innovator who had embraced the latest consumer technology --- a telephone for use by customers who wished to call in orders rather than shop in person. But the groceries still were delivered the old-fashioned way --- behind a horse.

That all changed a year later, during August of 1912, when Piper invested in a new Ford delivery wagon and retired the old horses. I do not have access to a photo of the new wagon, but here's the report of its arrival that was published in The Herald-Patriot of Aug. 29.

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Chariton is putting on airs and all because she has auto delivery by one of the leading merchants of the city. Joe L. Piper, the hustling groceryman, has discarded the old method of delivery by horses and has installed a new and handsome Ford auto to carry purchases to customers. The new method is much more rapid than the old, more goods can be handled in a given time and longer and more frequent trips can be made than under the old plan.

It is said that one Ford wagon will deliver more goods and cover a wider scope of territory than three wagons will do and that the cost of operation is no greater. Increasing business compelled Mr. Piper to provide better facilities for delivery and the auto wagon presented itself as the best method of solving the demand for more and better service.

The new machine was brought from Des Moines Monday and since Tuesday has been making regular deliveries all over town and to nearby residences in the country. It has 22-horse power engines and is under the guidance of Max J. Lamb, who has the goods at the door almost as soon as they are handed to him for delivery. The women will appreciate the rapid delivery which an auto wagon insures and the new departure of Mr.  Piper should be a paying one.

Aunt Bitha wants you to know her name was Tobitha

I enjoyed a visit at the museum yesterday afternoon with cousins --- somewhat distant but cousins none the less --- descended from a couple I've always known as Uncle Rial and Aunt Bitha Miller, following in the footsteps of my mother (Rial's and Bitha's grandniece) and maternal grandfather (their nephew).

Uncle Rial was Gerial Trescott Miller (1865-1932; brother to my great-grandfather, Joseph Cyrus Miller) and Aunt Bitha, Sarah Tobitha (Carson) Miller (1865-1949). The borrowed photograph of their tombstone in the Chariton Cemetery here was lifted from from Find A Grave.

Aunt Bitha's obituary, published in The Chariton Patriot of Feb. 17, 1949, is a memorable one, to my mind mostly because of its graceful first paragraph: "Not bound with affliction and disease except the infirmities of old age, but like a shock of fully developed wheat, Mrs. Tobitha Miller came to the terminal of her earthy life at one p.m. Monday, Feb. 14, at the home of her son, Chester Miller, east of Williamson."

When I turned to Find A Grave at the museum yesterday to find the obit --- amazing volunteers have added photographs and obituaries when available to nearly all of the Lucas County Find A Grave entries ---  it wasn't there, so I couldn't share it. I'm rectifying that situation by posting the complete obituary here. After the introductory paragraph, it continues:

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Tobitha Carson, daughter of Isaac Newton and Margaret Carson, was born in Harrison county, Ohio, March 3, 1865, and departed this life February 14, 1949, at the age of 83 years, 11 months and 11 days. When a small child she came with her parents to Pleasant township in Lucas county, Iowa, where she grew to womanhood and lived until her marriage. She was the eldest of four children, two of whom, Frank and Birdella, having preceded her in death leaving one brother, John Carson, surviving.

She was married to G. Miller March 1, 1896, and they settled on a farm in Englsh township. They were the parents of two children, Chester Miller, east of Williamson, and Blanch Myree Spiker, of Des Moines. Besides the two children she leaves three grandchildren, Ellsworth Miller, of Russell, Iowa; Naomi Miller Bennett, of Alhambra, California; and Norma Spiker Cole, of Des Moines; one little grandson, Byron Boyd Spiker, having gone on before. There are also left five great-grandchildren, Michael and Jo Ann Miller, Janice Lee and Sharon Kay Cole and Tommy Bennett.

Mrs. Miller united with the Belinda Christian church in early life, later transferring her membership to the Central Christian church in Williamson where she maintained a lively interest in all its activities throughout its history and never lost interest in all things spiritual in the years since its dissolution.

In 1918 (actually January of 1919), Mr. and Mrs. Miller left the farm and took up residence in Williamson. Here Mr. Miller died in 1932 and Mrs. Miller maintained her home for the most part in Williamson until the past year and a half it seemed advisable for her to sell her home and move to the home of her son where she would have better care and less responsibility.

Mrs. Miller was a woman of strong convictions and always dared to be true to her convictions. No one could meet her and know her without being impressed by her great love for truth and righteousness and her abject abhorence of anything that savored of sham and pretense. She was a loving mother, a good neighbor and a true friend and she leaves a large circle of friends and relatives who are saddened by her passing.

Funeral services conducted by Rev. Bloom, of the Chariton Christian church, were held at the Miley funeral home Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock with burial in the Chariton cemetery. Mrs. Hilma Webb and Mrs. Alex Wallace sang favorite hymns of the deceased. Pallbearers were six nephews, W.A., Jerry and Clair Miller and Francis, Leo and Emory Carson (W.A. Miller was my grandfather; Jerry and Clair, his brothers).

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While consulting Find A Grave, I discovered that whoever created Aunt Bitha's memorial page had gone astray. The creator was not one of the Lucas County volunteers involved in the page, but apparently a Carson relative who lives in Chicago.

Instead of giving her name correctly as "Tobitha," the entry shows the name as "Tabitha." While Tobitha is a variant spelling of Tabitha, it's not quite the same.

Then I went to the family history files at Ancestry.com to see what mischief the mistaken Find A Grave entry was responsible for. There are 77 Ancestry.com entries for Aunt Bitha, about 60 of which give her full name incorrectly as "Sarah Tabitha." Two list it correctly as "Sarah Tobitha" and the rest, as "Sarah T."

Considering Aunt Bitha's great love for truth and righteousness, I feel called to warn you-all about the hazards of accepting as revelation everything found on Find A Grave or at Ancestry.com.

A $50 reward for alleged adulterers in flight

Notice that scandal was brewing in the Sharon Church neighborhood along the Lucas-Wayne county line south of Chariton back in summer 1906 appeared first in a news item headed "Reward $50," published on Page 1 of The Leader of August 9. The text continued:

"For D. C. Stokesberry and Mrs. Carrie Clark, supposed eloped. Man weighs 150 pounds, height 5 feet ten inches, hair red, eyes blue, large red mustache, 43 years old; on left hand first finger crooked and joint stiff, second finger end and part of nail cut off; thigh muscles of right leg have been badly torn.

"Woman, hair red, eyes hazel, medium build, age 25 years, weight 125 pounds, height 5 feet and 4 inches; scar on forehead about an inch long. Arrest and wire Laurel Boss, Sheriff, Chariton, Iowa."

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The players here were Carrie Josephine (Freel) Clark, age 23 going on 24; her husband, David Henry Clark, at 46 nearly twice Carrie's age; and David Clark Stokesberry, at 43, only a little younger.

David Henry Clark's first wife, Lydia, had died during August of 1898, leaving him with six children to raise. When Carrie married him on Feb. 4, 1900, she stepped into a family that included a stepdaughter and five stepsons ranging in age from 5 to 17. She then gave birth to three children of her own in quick succession, Ruth during November of 1900; Harry, during December of 1902; and little Carrie L., born during June of 1904, died in November of 1905.

D.C. Stokesberry, who may or may not have been married previously, had wed a young widow with four children named Mary (Blakely) Nickum in Chariton on May 15, 1903, but wedded bliss had proved elusive. They were divorced within a year and Mary launched into her third marriage --- to Oscar M. Kirkbride --- during November of 1904 --- leaving D.C. a "grass widower."

Everyone involved here, it would seem, was among the walking wounded.

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During the week that followed publication of the reward notice, David Henry Clark called on the Leader's Gittinger in his Chariton office, sounding conciliatory --- or so Gittinger reported in his edition of Aug. 16:

"David Clark, of Benton township, called at the Leader office Saturday in reference to the reported elopement of D.C. Stokesberry and Carrie Clark. He regrets the publicity the incident has aroused and is inclined to take a charitable view of the affair, giving his wife the full benefit of all doubts. It is his opinion she has gone to her people in Wyoming and does not intend to be vindictive further than to protect his own rights in the matter. He hopes she has been innocent of all criminal intentions, though seemingly guilty of an unpardonable wrong."

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But the search continued and on Sept. 13, The Leader reported the following under the headline, "The Elopers Found":

 "Some weeks since, D.C. Stokesberry and Mrs. David Clark were missing from their homes in Benton township and it was asserted that they had eloped. A reward was offered for apprehension and the authorities have received word that they have been apprehended and are held at Los Angeles, California. They will be sent for and returned to Iowa to face the majesty of the law." 

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The return to Chariton was reported upon in The Chariton Patriot of Sept. 27 under the headline, "Alleged Elopers Brought Home":

"County Attorney Wells and D.H. Clark returned Monday night from Los Angeles, California, bringing with them Clark's wife and D.C. Stokesberry, who it is said eloped from here some weeks ago. Clark and his erring spouse stayed together at the depot hotel Monday night and went to their farm in Benton township Tuesday. Stokesberry was placed in jail. When found in Los Angeles, it is said the elopers were employed at different places and were not living together.

"Stokesberry was arraigned before Justice E.H. Storie Wednesday upon the charge of adultery. At the close of the hearing the justice took the case under advisement and will render his decision Friday morning."

On Oct. 4, The Leader reported that "D.C. Stokesberry, the alleged elopist, has been bound over to await the action of the grand jury."

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The case came to trial during early November and ended, considering the amount of time and money invested in it by Lucas County, with a distinct thud.

The Patriot of Nov. 15, under the headline "D.C. Stokesberry acquitted," reported that "D.C. Stokesberry was tried in the district court this week upon the charge of maintaining adulterous relations with Mrs. D.H. Clark, with whom is it alleged he eloped to California last summer. The jury concluded there was not sufficient evidence to convict him, so brought in a verdict of  not guilty."

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After that, David Henry and Carrie Clark remained together for the remainder of his life. He died on July 1, 1929, age 68, as the result of a stroke, and was buried by his first wife's side in the Sharon Church graveyard. Carrie outlived him by more than 30 years, passing on Dec. 21, 1965, at the age of 83. She, too, is buried at Sharon Church.

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David Stokesberry, following his acquittal, headed for the Pacific Northwest and landed in Oregon. He had a daughter there, Elizabeth, born about 1886 in Iowa, census records tell us, and married first to a Charles Clark and then to a Whitten.

Oregon census records for 1910-1930 show David working as a laborer and living single --- with his daughter during 1920, alone during the other years. 

He died on June 17, 1942, age 79, at the home of his daughter near Turner in Marion County, Oregon, and was buried there two days later in Twin Pines Cemetery. Here's his obituary as published under Turner news in The Salem Statesman-Journal of June 30:

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"Funeral services for David Clark Stokesberry were held in the Turner Christian church. Rev. Gene Robinson, the pastor, officiated. He was born in Fayette county, Ohio, 79 years ago, one of a family of 16 children. Mr. Stokesberry was a pioneer of the Oregon country and a resident of the Willamette valley for more than 48 years. He rode horseback three times from Idaho to Forest Grove and walked twice from Des Moines, Iowa, to Spokane, Wash.

"Mr. Stokesberry had been a member of the Odd Fellows lodge since 1892. For the past several months he had been ill with heart trouble at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Whitten, in the Crawford district, and died there on June 17. Mrs. Stokesberry died in 1912. 

"Interment was in Twin Oaks cemetery here. Besides the daughter, Mrs. Whitten, a grandson and a great-grandson, Lewis Clark and Dale Clark of  Portland, survive; and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Nailer of Pasadena, Calif."

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David's death certificate, with his daughter as informant, states that he had been a resident of Oregon for 56 years (although not necessarily consistently). That, if accurate, would date his arrival to 1886, the same approximate year Elizabeth was born in Iowa.

Did he emigrate from Iowa with a young wife and child during the mid-1880s, then separate and roam for the remainder of his life, giving Chariton newspapers the opportunity to immortalize him while reporting upon a case of adultery in 1906? It's unlikely we'll ever know.

Did anyone ever collect the $50 reward offered for the apprehension of Carrie and David? Unlikely we'll ever know the answer to that one either.

Clifton Werts & bringing in the sheaves

I wrote the other day about Russell's Clifton E. Werts (1868-1943) and his innovative "house car" --- "Clifton E. Werts and Russell's First Motor Home."

But this was not Mr. Werts' only innovation. Like many farmers of his time, when something wasn't working the way he thought it should, he did his best to make it do so --- and that included his horse-drawn binder.

Made obsolete by today's combine harvester, the binder was invented during 1872 in Wisconsin and was among the major advances in agriculture of the time. Drawn by a team, the binder cut small grain and bound it into sheaves with at first wire and then twine. The sheaves usually were arranged into shocks with grain heads up to dry, then collected from fields later and carried to threshing machines.

Back in 1907, when his binder was failing to gain the traction needed to cut and bind, Mr. Werts had the bright idea of attaching a gasoline-powered engine to the horse-drawn device to make it work more efficiently. His effort was publicized by Henry Gittinger in his Chariton Leader, the news spread to the Des Moines newspapers by George F. Carpenter, then clerk of district court --- and the rest is history, sort of.

Here's how Gittinger reported the process in his edition of Aug. 8, 1907:

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The Leader printed an item a couple of weeks ago concerning Cliff Werts' putting a gasoline engine on his binder. Clerk G.F. Carpenter was in Des Moines and dilated on the matter to a Register and Leader reporter, and with it all Cliff finds himself as famous as the man who invented the split log road drag. The Albia Republican says of it:

"A way to harvest oats when they are down has been partially solved by a farmer of Lucas county, according to reports that have gone out from that county. Werts was the farmer's name and he was of an inventive turn of mind. The drive wheel on his binder would slide along on the wet places and he could get no good results from that direction, so he rigged up a gasoline engine and hooked on to the sickle and elevator and started her going. The horses drew the binder and the gasoline engine kept the sickle going like clockwork. The experiment is said to have been the biggest kind of a success and every farmer in the country has an application in to borrow the machine."

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Werts did not capitalize on his innovation and before too long, as tractors made horseflesh obsolete, power take-offs were used to power binders that, in turn, were made obsolete by combine harvesters.

But for a brief shining moment, there was glory in the Werts oat fields as the internal combustion engine helped propel the process of bringing in the sheaves.

Jacob Lemley has the last laugh --- in his coffin

Russell-area pioneer Jacob Lemley, who died at 78 during 1906, is one of those guys you'd like to know more about. Chariton Leader editor Henry Gittinger, a Russell boy himself, praised Jacob's virtues in a  front-page obituary published on Sept. 20, 1906. Then added the teaser --- that he was "extremely eccentric" --- and then the spoiler, "his faults have died with him."

The only example of eccentricity cited by Henry was the fact that some years prior to his death, Jacob  cut a walnut log on his farm, had it turned into lumber and then commissioned a coffin for himself that was stored away to await the end.

Sadly, Henry concluded, "he never got to sleep in the box as he died away from home." Jacob died at the home of a daughter, Mary Pierce, in Colorado and his cased remains were shipped back to Russell for burial a couple of days later.

As it turns out, however, Henry was wrong. An update in The Leader of Sept. 27 reads, "The Leader was in error somewhat last week in the statement that the late Jacob Lemley was not interred in the coffin that he had had made years ago and laid away for the eventual day. When his remains were brought from Colorado, it was found by measurement that the case would fit into the walnut coffin, so without disturbing the remains it was placed therein and entombed."

So now we know that however Jacob might have felt about Henry spreading his virtues and foibles across the front page of a Chariton weekly, he had the last laugh --- tucked away in his walnut box.

Here's the text of the obituary Henry published under the headline, "The Passing of a Pioneer."

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Jacob Lemley, of Washington township, died on last Thursday at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Will Pierce, at Eaton, Colorado. For several years he had been in failing health and during the past two years his mental condition was such that he needed constant attention --- in fact he had almost entirely lost his faculty of reason, his mental condition seemingly a thoughtless stupor.

Several months ago he was taken to Colorado to be cared for by his daughter, his large family of children being widely scattered and few of the family left here. Mr. Lemley was well advanced in years, his age not being far from 80.

He was a native of Greene county, Pennsylvania, and came to Iowa not far from 50 years ago, locating in Washington township, there enduring privations and hardships and poverty, raising a large family of boys and girls.

In after years, he was one of the most active and prosperous businessmen of that section and as a farmer had many broad acres and was one who took the initiative in the more modern methods of agriculture. In business matters he was thoroughly honest and was ever ready to help others. These are his virtues. His faults have died with him.

In character, he was extremely eccentric, caring nothing for the customs of the time, and was perfectly oblivious to the evolutions of affairs or neighborly criticism.

As one example, a few years since, realizing that his life's journey was nearing its end, he went out into his woods and with his own hand felled a walnut tree, sawed a length, hauled it to the mill and had it cut into lumber. He then employed I.N. McKinley to make him a coffin like they used in the early days, which he stored away to await the final summons.

However, he never got to sleep in the box as he died away from home. But a romancer seized upon this out of which to construct a story and wrote that after he had builded his coffin, he changed his mind about death, got married again, fashioned rockers to the box and sang lullabies instead of dirges.

This grew out of his eccentricity and sounded quaint abroad. Many who knew him in his active and better days will learn of his death with unfeigned sorrow.

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Jacob was born  May 9, 1828, in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and apparently married there in the mid-1840s Margaret Bell by whom he had at least nine children and who accompanied him to Iowa. She died during 1880 and was buried in the Russell Cemetery.

He was 56 when he married again --- on July 20, 1884, to Cavilla Horner, then 21. They went on to have five children together, but were estranged although not divorced at the time of Cavilla's death during 1902. So she is buried elsewhere in the Russell Cemetery.

Jacob, double-boxed, was interred by Margaret's side.

Reclaiming "woke"

A Facebook friend shared this slightly blurred image on Saturday, an effort to re-establish integrity of the term "woke," used increasingly as a pejorative lately. We've all seen or heard it used by folks challenged in the self-awareness department to describe progressive causes and people.

But I like this: "Woke means awakened to the needs of others. To be well informed, thoughtful, compassionate, humble, and kind. Eager to make the world a better place for all people."

That source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, tells us that "woke" is an adjective meaning alert to racial prejudice and discrimination that originated in African-American vernacular English and, beginning in the 2010s, came to encompass a broader awareness of racism, social inequalities, sexism and the like.

Negative use of the term grew as racism, America's national weed, burst into full bloom again and began to scatter its seeds.

But "woke" is just another way of saying "awakened" or "enlightened," a complicated process understood in the Buddhist tradition, not so much in the instant gratification culture generated among those of us who are for the most part culturally Christian.

I'm certainly not "woke" quite yet --- but it is a worthy goal.