Someone asked the other day about the various uses of Chariton's Eikenberry Park. Known primarily in recent years as the location of a baseball field with a small shelter house and playground equipment to the east, the park fills the half block between North 12th and North 13th streets at their intersections with Auburn Avenue. It received its name in 1962 in honor of the late Bill Eikenberry who had donated the property to the city during 1957.
Although privately owned until 1957, the area (platted as W.W. Baker's subdivision of the north half of Outlot 16, original city of Chariton) has a long history as some of Chariton's earliest public ground. Never really developed, it was valued by the Eikenberrys primarily because of its strategic location adjacent to the C.B.&Q. railroad tracks to the east and the depot to the north. The family business --- grain, coal, lumber, building supplies and other commodities --- was founded by Daniel Eikenberry (the donor's grandfather) and headquartered a block east, on the current site of the Autumn Park apartments.
But three generations of Eikenberrys were generous with its use. Circuses and traveling shows were allowed to pitch their tents there, it was the site of revival meetings, many of the earliest baseball games in Chariton were played there and it even served for a time as the Chariton High School football field.
And as the winter of 1919 approached, it became the site of the city's most elaborate ice skating rink, as reported in The Herald-Patriot of Oct. 30:
"Loyd Mikesell, chairman of the committee on the proposed free ice skating rink, reported to the Commercial Club directors last Monday that all preliminary arrangements had been made and that all that was needed was the raising of a small sum, not to exceed $250, for the necessary expense. Fifty dollars of this was raised on the spot and Glen Peasley was appointed a special committee to secure the balance, which, with his well known energy, will be quickly done.
"The grounds, which will cover more than a city block, have been donated for this use by the owners, W.A. Eikenberry and the Burlington railway. Mr. Eikenberry also donates the posts necessary for the lighting system. The city officials have promised free water and ample police protection. The Southern Iowa Electric Co., not to be outdone in furthering the project, has offered free electricity and to erect the lights at cost. An embankment to confine the water will be made at once and the work pushed so that all will be ready for the first real freeze. A concession will be granted for a lunch counter on the grounds, to include shelter for skaters, and for the rental of skates, but the use of the rink will be entirely free. It might be a good plan to inaugurate the grounds with a grand 'rink warming' with a concert by the new band."
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Good deeds rarely go unpunished and that certainly had been the case a few years earlier, in 1907, when Joseph F. Spiker, a prosperous retired farmer who had moved into the neighborhood during 1903, filed suit against W.A. Eikenberry, alleging that by allowing public use of his property he was maintaining a public nuisance.
Judge Charles W. Vermilion, of Centerville, ruled against Eikenberry in Lucas County District Court and issued an injunction against public use.
Annoyed, Eikenberry took the case as far as the Iowa Supreme Court, where he prevailed. Thereafter, no one challenged the family's right to allow public access to what now is Eikenberry Park. Mr. Spiker expired during 1915, so did not live long enough to see his neighborhood flooded for use as a skating rink.
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