Guthrie County IA Archives History - Books .....Front Matter 1932 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/iafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 5, 2007, 10:33 pm Book Title: A Record Dedicated TO ALL who love the memory of that brave fighting host who marched out upon the battlefields of unknown and uncharted empires, and blazed a way for the oncoming army of the world's builders -those who formed the "skirmish line" of the army of civilization-— the "Pioneers." ACKNOWLEDGMENT My obligation and gratitude to Mrs. Luella M. Ely for her help in this project is hereby acknowledged. It has been her kind loving spirit and interest that has made it possible. With the affection of a loving daughter, she has guided, inspired and ministered to an old man as he struggled to memorialize his old friends. Her stenographic ability and unselfish service were dominant factors in its production. Foreword OFTEN memory brings us fruits, flowers and golden grain, but her banquets are enjoyed to the full, only, by those whose souls have been touched and moved by the influence of the things she offers. How quickly the memory of man "runneth, not to the contrary, but, not at all." The men and women who are referred to herein contributed to the good of their times, and their lives are worthy of emphasis. I, who knew them, and have personal knowledge of what they did, and have had the benefit and good of their fellowship, as a token of my friendship and high personal regard, submit this history and biography. The names of these men and women with a proper reference in bronze attached to native granite boulders are permanently located upon the campus of the county court house in Guthrie Center. The financial part of this project has been generously taken care of by the relatives and friends of these enterprising citizens. May the public spirit and unselfishness thus manifested be appreciated. ELBERT WRIGHT WEEKS. October 1932. (3) Elbert Wright Weeks An Editorial In The Guthrian By ROY A. STACEY EXEMPLIFYING the best elements in the characters of the men and women of the generations through which he lived, and ennobled by the aspirations and achievements of those stirring times of our pioneers, Elbert Wright Weeks, thinker, patriot, statesman, silently bowed his head over his writing desk last Saturday afternoon and passed into that last long sleep from which he will awaken on the Morning of Eternal Resurrection. Mr. Weeks was a notable character, whose impress upon the peoples and events of the times was noble and inspiring. He was the friend of every worthy cause; an untiring opponent of every unclean and unholy thought. His vision broadened with the years and his patriotism strengthened the younger generations as they came along to bear their burdens and to perpetuate the liberties and the opportunities of the people of the United States of America. For he loved the Stars and Stripes of our glorious Red, White and Blue flag with a passion second only to his service for God and righteousness. A leader in a generation of strong men, Mr. Weeks has been for half a century a towering figure among the citizenry of Guthrie county, and of Iowa. But the exalted life and influence of Elbert Wright Weeks lives on. It lives in the hearts of the oldest citizens, in the thoughts of the men and women who are carrying the loads of responsibilities of the present day, and in the minds of young boys and girls just starting their school work. They all knew and honored Mr. Weeks. During the past five years Mr. Weeks has devoted his energies to the writing of history, biography and memory stories of the pioneers of Guthrie county, and it so happened that the final corrected proofs of this book were made to submit to him at just about the hour of his passing at the Masonic sanitarium last Saturday. This book, however, will be published as he planned and wrote it. In his preface to this book Mr. Weeks says of the pioneers of his time: "As I stand with uncovered head in the lengthening shadows and glow of the setting sun, I seek to perpetuate their memories yet a little while fully realizing that soon, very soon, the shades of time will hide them, and the coming generations will only know them from the pages of a scanty, passionless history. They bequeathed to their posterity a goodly inheritance. "Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joy, and destiny obscure; Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, The short and simple annals of the poor." "In closing I give expression to my amazement, gratitude and admiration for my time, place and parentage in the world's life and great program. May worship and praises be unto Jehovah forever more." [Photo of plaque] In Honor and Memory of Prominent Pioneers and Builders of GUTHRIE CENTER Who were Active and Influential Characters During the Decades Named 1850—1870 WILLIAM M. TRACY EDER B. NEWTON THOMAS SEELY CHARLES HUXLEY WILLIAM WARRINGTON 1880—1890 CHARLES ASHTON HENRY KIRK DEWEY JAMES H. ROGERS HENRY J. HESS DAVID P. WILLIAMS 1870—1880 DR. JOHN BOWER JAMES A. LYONS JOHN E. MOTZ GILES C. MILLER DANIEL L. MOTZ 1890—1900 DR. OSCAR FORDYCE EDWARD E. DOSH FRANK M. HOPKINS JOSEPH D. BROWN EDGAR C. LANE Fifty Years! Great Years! Great Men! "Seed Time, God Giveth The Increase, We Enjoy The Harvest" Favor—Lions Club—1926 Text—E. W. WEEKS Preface Dear Reader: That you may understand and appreciate this brochure, read this foreword: I was born near Painesville, Lake county, Ohio, October 7, 1850. My ancestry was of the common country folk, familiar with agricultural labor and rural life. In the early fifties, father made an excursion into the great undeveloped West, having in mind a new home, self-owned, more room, employment and keep for the increasing household. His first stop was at Iowa City, the capital city of a state four years old; its first governor—Hon. Ansell Briggs, completing his administration. A new capitol, remarkable for its plain substantial architectural lines, stood majestic, attractive, and imposing on a high bluff overlooking the surrounding country, imparting to beholders the inspiration and thought of a metropolis. State highways, mail and stage routes extended from this, the capital city, to the great unfilled West, over which passengers, freight, and mail were transported to the scattered towns, settlements and unoccupied regions of the interior. Father ventured afoot from Iowa City over the Montezuma and Oskaloosa State Highway, as it extended west across the "Welch Hills" to the Sehoorn settlement, where it entered the valley of Old Man's Creek, which it followed into and across Green township, Iowa county. On this journey of exploration, his second stop was at the first stage station, twenty miles west from Iowa City; it was the pioneer home of Edward Ricord, whose extensive holdings were part timber and part prairie. Ricord talked the "Yank" from the "Western Reserve" (Northern Ohio) into preempting prairie, (mesa) land; the "Yank" thought he must have timber land, but was satisfied with a cheap forty of Ricord's timber, and preempted a tract of three forties of brush and prairie land, the timber forty being detached from the other forties. These tracts were the pioneer farm holdings of the Weeks's in Green township, Iowa county, Iowa. Some years later an adjoining forty was bought from the Rev. Geo. Litzenberg. The Weeks migration in 1855 to Iowa was Henry and Sarah Weeks with their children Amelia, Elbert and Milford. The family lived a while in a log cabin belonging to Ricord, and two winters in the Britton cabin, here Nettie was born; Jessie and Mary were born after the family moved upon the farm. In those primitive times, away from the timber it was difficult to get a cabin, finally an unoccupied one was found and its bass-wood logs and oak clapboards were brought and put together upon the prairie land, its walls were rechinked, and the hand made clap boards relaid for its roof. Mother caught the water from the leaks in pans and tubs and swept up the snow that sifted in through its open spaces. It was not until March, 1857, the family took possession of their pioneer home. The farm program was work, everybody busy, frugality, sober, earnest thought and conduct, district school, posts and rails, and stove wood during the winter followed by breaking the prairie, fencing, piling and burning roots, planting and harvesting. It was the time of the hickory shirt, blue denim breeches, homemade straw hat. It was sixty years before we had reached the high, cultivated and civilized level of pajamas, B. V. D's. and six-fingered gloves. The saucer and knife were the ranking tools of table service. Mother's cooking was the only domestic method of food production. Three meals were served each day as per a fixed schedule, to which the family group, including hired help, were summoned and all partook at the same time around a common table. In the late sixties, having completed the district school curriculum of McGuffy's reader, Pineo's grammar, Ray's arithmetic, and Noah Webster's blue speller, I obtained two semesters of high school work and a period of review at the McClain's Academy at Iowa City. I taught a winter term of the McArtor District school, which brought me to the middle of June, 1872, money-less and jobless. I hired to Nels Mills on the Chauncey Price farm, south of South Amana eight miles, during the months of July and August that year at $26.00 per month. September 1st he paid me $51.50. I had drawn 50 cents to go to Yankee Robinson's circus at Marengo during the two months. Gum, gas, laundry and barber bills were unknown expenditures to a farm hand who was earning $1.00 per day, harvesting, haying and threshing during those busy months. I entered the law department of the Iowa State University in September, 1872, and graduated therefrom the following June. The degree of L. L. B. was conferred upon me and I was sworn in as a member of the Iowa Bar. I spent the winter of 1873-4 in a law office in Albia, Iowa, the winter of 1874-5 in David City, Nebraska, the winter of 1875-6 at home, and taught my second term of the McArtor school. I located at Guthrie Center in May, 1876. The place was an unincorporated settlement in the territory of Center township and was the county seat of Guthrie county, 14 miles from the nearest railroad, in the midst of a sparsely settled agricultural region, its highways "headed the sloughs" and followed the ridges. Its world contact was limited to one mail per day. and the delivery of freight every other day from Guthrie switch (now Menlo). My location in this primitive community was final and permanent, and as a young man I resolved to participate in its affairs, development and growth, and during all the fifty-five years of my domicile therein I have been intensely interested and active in its welfare and social life. Opportunities for service and co-operation were ever present and ample, its churches, schools, fraternities, service groups and administrative needs were broad fields, beckoning for laborers. The people and incoming settlers were the common, plebian or proletariat of history. This class was so numerous, they were reckoned as God's favorites, it was this class that heard the Master "gladly." The endeavor to acquire and live, local pride, the mutual purposes of all, brought the people close, very close together, and the tragedies and joys of one fell upon all; each knew and took interest in all the others. As this community moved across the years with its multiplied problems and obligations its members became comrades, friends, yea, dearer and closer, they were as members of a family circle. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, their plain faces and forms, in the radiant golden glow of memory stimulated by an affection and high regard became attractive and beautiful to the writer, who is thereby prompted to delay yet a little longer their passing. The foregoing will reveal my plea for this Brochure, it is a feeble offering of appreciation and love for my contemporaries and companions, who pulled, pushed and lifted along the dusty road of progress; who broke the wild sod, grubbed and burned the roots, in the uncultured fields of nature, and thus established the jurisdiction of that marvelous co-partnership—God and Man. As I stand with uncovered head in the lengthening shadows and glow of the setting sun, I seek to perpetuate their memories yet a little while, fully realizing that soon, very soon, the shades of time will hide them, and the coming generations will only know them from the pages of a scanty, passionless history. They bequeathed to their posterity a "goodly inheritance." "Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joy, and destiny obscure; Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, The short and simple annals of the poor." Notwithstanding I may be charged with egotism, I cannot refrain from naming the high points in the record of my life. I do not include matters and events relating to my domestic and church activities. I do not plead merit, or deserving ability for being so richly favored. Graduation in law State University of Iowa and admission to the bar—1873. My location at Guthrie Center, Iowa,—1876. Delegate from the Seventh District of Iowa to Republican National convention, the Blaine and Logan convention—1884. Grand Chancellor Knights of Pythias, Domain of Iowa, 1891-92. Secretary National Republican League—1900-06. A guest, with others, of President Roosevelt, at dinner at the White House—1903. Representative in the thirtieth, thirty-first, thirty-second and third-second extra session of the General Assembly of Iowa—1904-08. My bill, House file 40, introduced in January, 1904, being the first move to put the highways of the state under scientific and departmental supervision. My minority report and its adoption in March, 1904, against discontinuing and merging the Engineering Department of the State University with the one at the State College at Ames. My Chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee of the thirty-second General Assembly of Iowa. Fifty-four years active practice of law at Guthrie Center, with one office change. In closing I give expression to my amazement, gratitude and admiration for my time, place and parentage in the world's life and great program. May worship and praises be unto Jehovah forever more. E. W. WEEKS, Additional Comments: Extracted from: A RECORD History Biography Memory Pioneer Times and Peoples GUTHRIE CENTER I0WA By ELBERT WRIGHT WEEKS 1932 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ia/guthrie/history/1932/arecord/frontmat33gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/iafiles/ File size: 5.4 Kb