Searchable databases of digitalized newspapers can be entertaining as well as useful, leading to an occasional pastime --- looking for references to Chariton and Lucas County in papers published elsewhere during the years before local files exist.
The Chariton Patriot, established in 1854, was Lucas County's first newspaper but only a couple of issues published prior to the 1870s have survived. The Democrat came along in 1867 and early issues of that publication are available.
The problem with references published elsewhere during those early years is that editors, mining their exchange copies of The Patriot, were looking for brief clips that were either entertaining or sensational.
Here are a few published during 1866, more or less chronologically, beginning with a fuss among Chariton Methodists, the city's oldest congregation, who had just completed a fine new brick building at the intersection of North Main and Roland two years earlier (above):
"The Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Chariton have raised a tempest in the congregation by deciding that at all meetings for public worship each sex must occupy seats on opposite sides of the house. Those who accept 'Whom God has joined together' &c., in its full meaning, protest against this putting asunder. Don't blame them a bit." (The Morning Democrat, Davenport, Jan. 17, 1866)
Sheep production became a major ag industry in Lucas County immediately after the Civil War with Lewis Bonnett, who arrived from Illinois during 1865 and located on a big farm south of Chariton in Benton Township, leading the way. Here's a report published in The Ottawa Free Trader (Ottawa, Illinois) on June 2, 1866:
"A Good Investment: A Lucas County (Iowa) wool grower whose name is not given furnishes the Chariton Patriot with a statement showing that from the 1st of September, 1865, when he brought 450 sheep to Iowa, up to the present time, he has made $3,000 clear profit from his flock. He estimates the total profit up to September next at $4,500 for thee years' investment."
Also during June, a little drama: "Leander Bennett, a crazy man, went in to Mr. Pim's barn in Chariton and, having been taken for a horse thief, was shot by Pim's son. The wound was severe, but not fatal." (The Atchison Daily Champion, Atchison, Kansas, June 6, 1866)
Of all the 1866 news items datelined Chariton, this one seems to have traveled most widely, appearing in at least a dozen newspapers (and probably more) nation-wide. This version was published in The Detroit Free Press of Aug. 15, 1866:
"Mr. Young, of Chariton, Iowa, had a firebug ('petrified firebug' in some appearances elsewhere) taken from his ear a few days since, after it had remained there thirty-six years, much to the detriment of his hearing."
The Troy Register of Troy, Kansas, Oct. 11, 1866, carried this report of how a mortgage proved to be a barrier to marital bliss: "In Chariton, Iowa, recently, the friends of a gentleman and lady who had mutually plighted their troth were invited to see them made one. The clergyman came, and the people came, the bride was ready, and the bridegroom was there; but he discovering just before the knot was tied that there was a mortgage on the lady's property, refused to be united to her."
And finally, a little more drama to conclude the year --- this from The Davenport Morning Democrat of Dec. 19, 1866:
"Mrs. Van Sickle, at Chariton, administered a whipping to a Mr. Pease, the irate lady's nephew, in the street the other evening. Mrs. V. was accompanied by her husband --- just so see that Pease didn't 'hit back,' we suppose. The cause of the difficulty is not stated by the Patriot."
No comments:
Post a Comment