Thursday, March 10, 2022

Chariton and its square sink into a sea of mud

Lucas County was a sea of mud back in March of 1892 as the spring thaw combined with rain and late snow to make travel extremely difficult. In Chariton, where no streets were paved, the situation --- especially on the town square --- was especially notable.

Business was suffering and some items were in short supply because the farmers who ordinarily provided them could not get into town to market their produce.

As a result, the Chariton newspapers during early March contained numerous letters, some solicited by their editors and others not, offering city and county officials advice on how to deal with the situation, including the one that follows, published in The Democrat of March 10 and signed, "Public Spirited Citizen."

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The merchants of our city, who furnish a large part of the energy and business of our city, are complaining of dull times and give as a reason the bad condition of the roads. The people in general are suffering for the want of fresh butter and eggs, because the farmers cannot bring them to market.

Four-horse teams get mired down with an empty wagon. It is almost impossible to get around on the country roads, and business is at a standstill. Chariton draws business from 1 to 20 miles and is dependent largely upon the farmers, as we are an agricultural and grazing community. The country roads are worked by the farmers --- some well worked, others indifferently, and some not at all. The roads in town are worked under the supervision of the city. We employ men to work and have a salaried street commissioner, and it would be expected that we would have good roads, but such is not the case.

The heart of the city, our public square, has the worst roads of any place in the county, the clay hills of Whitebreast being in better shape the major part of the year. It is a disgrace to an urban community to have such streets --- any corner of the square is so low and badly drained that the water cannot drain off and when a few teams have passed along a quagmire has formed.

Just in front of the Union block the grade is so high that the water drains off onto the sidewalk, and the crossings are below grade and always muddy. On the west side of the square the city has employed several teams and extra men to haul old rubbish from the old courthouse which is being dumped into the street, on top of the mud, to sink down out of sight when a team drives over it.

Last year, $816.00 was spent on our roads. Where did it go? Let anyone tell us. It did no visible good at least. Let the $18 to $20 a day which is now being spent be saved until the ground has dried, and then let the streets be graded and have a fall from center to sides of one to one and a half inches to the foot at least. Let stone gutters be placed next to the sidewalk, and let us demand that we have some sow for the money expended.

We have an embarrassed condition existing in our city finances and we ought not to be wasteful, but get value received for the expenditures.

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As noted, brick rubble from the recently demolished 1858 courthouse was being spread over Main Street on the west side of the square where it promptly sank into the mud and, perhaps, still remains under generations of later pavement.

Eventually that spring, Lucas County dried out and normal traffic resumed. But nothing major was done about street and road conditions during the next 10 years.

When William E. Curtis, a correspondent for the Chicago Record-Herald, visited Chariton during the summer of 1903, he described the situation like this in his report of August 17:

"The streets of Chariton are in a dreadful condition. Residents tell me that frequently in the winter and spring the public square is ornamented with abandoned wagons stuck in the mud and a circus that was here not long ago had an experience similar to that of Fort Dodge. The roads were so bad that the wagons could not be hauled through the town to the fair grounds, and the company was compelled to give only a part of a performance on the baseball grounds, which are near the station."

Curtis went on to report that even as he wrote, however, the situation was being rectified: "But improvements in this particular have already commenced, and large gangs of men are now grading one of the main streets to lay the first pavement in the town. It will be made of brick placed upon a concrete base, and will cover the principal streets and the public square, while petitions are in circulation for similar improvements in the residence section. Brick must be used, because there is no roadmaking material in this part of the state --- no stone, gravel, sand or any thing. It is a proverb that good soil makes poor roads, which is fully demonstrated in this part of Iowa."

The image at the beginning of this post, taken during late summer or early fall 1903, shows a paving crew at work with buildings along the west side of the square in the background.

After this, the situation improved substantially --- to the situation of current day and age when we have the luxury of complaining about potholes in pavement that now covers nearly every traveled surface in town and many rural roadways as well.

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