HISTORY: History of NW Iowa, Osceola Co., IA This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Roseanna Zehner April 2003 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ______________________________________________________ NOTE: For more information on Osceola County, Iowa Please visit the Osceola County, IAGenWeb page at http://iagenweb.org/osceola/ ______________________________________________________ History of Northwestern Iowa Its History and Traditions 1804--1926 by Arthur F. Allen Volume 1 Chapter 7 Pages 250-251 -- OSCEOLA Osceola County, to the West of Dickinson, is different in its physical features from the lake counties of Northern Iowa. It has no lakes of importance and even its sloughs have nearly all been ditched and drained and the bottom lands been made productive. This county was originally an open prairie and destitute of timber with the exception of a little willow brush that escaped the annual prairie fires along Ocheyedan Creek. Otter and Ocheyedan creeks are the only streams of importance in the county, the former draining its western sections into Little Rock River, Lyon County, and Ocheyedan Creek, its eastern and central districts, into the Little Sioux, which it joins in Clay County to the south. The land along both these streams is nearly all tillable and excellent for farming. The surface of the county is generally rolling, with small level districts both in the eastern and western portions. The soil is a dark prairie loam, with porous clay subsoil, which ensures crops against seasons which are unusually wet or dry. It is from two to four feet deep, of fine quality and free from stone and, with proper cultivation and rotation of crops, is practically inexhaustible. Although one of the younger counties of Northwestern Iowa in point of settlement, Osceola has made rapid advances in agricultural matters for the past twenty-five years. The Government census of 1920 showed that its properties devoted to raising of crops and live stock were valued at $70,500,000 ; 1910, at $21,000,000 and 1900, at $10,600,000. At the completion of the last census year, its 18,000 beef cattle were valued at $902,000, and its dairy stock (13,000 animals) at $731,000. Its 35,000 swine were assessed at nearly $1,370,000. An important item in the development of its live stock interests was the raising of its crops of corn and hay and forage, represented by nearly 2,6000,000 bushels of the former, and 62,000 tons of the latter. Chapter 11 Pages 336-337--Men and Women who died in the uniform during the World War Osceola County, Iowa Bauman, Albert M., private (S.A.T.C.), died at Des Moines, Iowa. Benjamin, Charles Ernest, private, died at Edgewood, Maryland. Bloedel, Leonard Herman, seaman 2nd class, wireless operator, died at Manchester, New Hampshire. De Boer, Clarence, private, died of disease in France. Fairbrother, Charles H., private, died of disease in France. Gross, Byron, baker, died at Bigelow, Minnesota. Guthrie, Farrand Reed, private, killed in action in France. Haack, Andrew, musician (Naval Band), died at Marine Hospital, Chicago. Hoffman. Wm. B., private, killed in action in France. Jansma, Henry, private, died of wounds in France. Juel, Anton Paulson, private, died at camp Forrest, Georgia. Klunenburg, John F., private, died of wounds in France. Kuijs, Cornelius J., private, killed in action in France. McNeer, Dorsey, private, killed in action in France. Mudge, George E., private, Fort Scott, California. Ross, Elmer, private (S.A.T.C.), died at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Rust, Kasper, private, died at Camp Dodge, Iowa. Terhark, Henry, private, died in France (accident). VanPeursen, Gerritt, private, died in Germany (accident). Wagner, Otto Sylvester, private, died at Fort Riley, Kansas. Walker, Lionel Lowel, private, died at Camp Funston, Kansas. Willmarth, Newell O., private, killed in action in France. Wood, Guy Clarence, private, died at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. Worrick, Luther, private, died at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Chapter 13 Page 420--Osceola County Newspapers Osceola County was organized in the fall of 1871, the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad was built in the following year and the town of Sibley was platted on its line. There the county seat was also located in 1872, and in the summer of that year L.A.Baker established the first newspaper called the Sibley Gazette. Furthermore, the first courthouse was erected in 1872; so that the press and the county government were established in substantial form about the same time. The second newspaper at the seat of justice was founded in 1881, by Charles E. Crossly, as the Sibley Tribune, the name afterward being changed to the Osceola County Tribune. The town of Ashton was laid out by the land department of the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company in 1872. It was first named St. Gilman, but in 1882 the name was changed to Ashton. The village is in the southwestern part of the county, and its surviving newspaper, the Leader, was established by Claude Charles in 1890. The Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad crossed Osceola County in 1894, Ocheyedan being platted as one of its stations in the fall of that year. Its first building were soon erected, but it did not blossom forth as a newspaper town until August, 1891, when the Press came into existence under the shadow of a great personal affliction. The paper was started by D.A.W. Perkins, who intended it for his son, George W. Perkins, but while the material was still in the boxes at the freight depot, the boy was drowned in Silver Lake, near Lake Park. Under the burden of this terrible misfortune, however, Mr. Perkins issued the first number of the Press on August 7, 1891, and was for many years its editor and publisher. Chapter 15 Pages 478--482 Medical History of Osceola County About a decade ago Dr. H. Neill, who, in 1875, located for practice at Sibley, and was for many years one of the oldest, ablest and best known members of the profession in Osceola County, wrote a medical history of the county, which is largely drawn upon for this paper. Eventually, he retired to California where he died several years ago. He says: "About seventy percent of the early settlers of Osceola County were veterans of the Civil was, and the same is true of Northwest Iowa. These veterans stacked arms, married their sweethearts, worked for a while until they could get a yoke of cattle, a few cows and a little money, and in 1871 made a location in this beautiful region. The following year they brought their families and made their permanent homes in this section of the state. A history of medicine in the county should commence with some account of the early practitioners. From common report, I believe that Bela D. Churchill was the first to practice in the county. He was probably an army nurse and, on his arrival, as there were no doctors, he had to do something in the way of practice. As nearly as I can learn, he met with indifferent success. Whether he ever opened an office in Sibley I have not ascertained. "Dr. C. L. Gurney was the first man in the county who devoted his whole time to the practice of medicine. He located at Sibley in 1875, a few months prior to my appearance the scene. He first located on a homestead near Ashton in 1872. As nearly as I can learn, he was employed in some capacity by a doctor in Fayette, Iowa, and came from that place to Ashton. He was of Quaker extraction, and a church of that persuasion being located west of Ashton, and there being no doctor anywhere in that region, the fact that he knew anything about medicine was sufficient to draft him into the work. He was a cripple, due to a tubercular trouble of the knee, and because of this affliction he was finally induced to give up farming and devote all of his time to medicine. Accordingly he sold his farm and located in Sibley, as before mentioned. I found Dr. Gurney to be an estimable man, and considering his limitations, quite a successful practicioner. He made but little pretensions to knowing much about medicine. As I recollect, he had no surgical instruments, and his library consisted of a work on domestic medicine and Tilden's appendix to the Materia Medica. When he wanted a prescription, he consulted that work, in which there was a formula for every disease. I well remember a ride I made with the doctor. A man, a patient of the Doctor's, came to the road and displayed a fibroid tumor of the hand. Doctor Gurney told the man that it would be a pleasure for him to remove it. Afterwards, I asked the Doctor why he had not performed the operation; his reply was characteristic, "I don't know anything about the anatomy and might cut something, meaning an artery, I suppose. At the time mentioned he enjoyed a considerable practice, but under the circumstances, it soon began to wane. Our friendship continued until his death. During his residence in Sibley he took a vacation, and graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, although he was only absent about six months. In 1880 he removed to Sheldon, and in 1884 became a member of the Sheldon Board of United States Examining Surgeons for Pensions, Doctor Longshore and myself being the other members. About 1886 the Doctor sold his practice to Doctor Myers, and removed to Rock Rapids, where he suffered an amputation of his diseased leg. He immediately removed to Doon, Iowa, where he opened a drug store, and in connection with his business, practiced medicine. He died there about 1900." Doctor Neill then proceeds to instance various cases of surgery and disease which had come under his observation. He says that the first amputation in Osceola County, that of a child whose leg had been nearly severed by a reaper while he lay asleep in a wheat field, occurred in August, 1876, and the first operation for appendicitis, twelve years later. The first operation for stone in the bladder was performed in 1890 by Doctor Neill, assisted by two of his profession, upon a lad of sixteen years, with recovery. Dysentery, scarlet fever, typhoid fever and diphtheria were treated with more or less success in the early days, the two last diseases being perhaps the most widely disseminated. The greatest epidemic of diphtheria occurred in 1885, its inception having been in Eastern Lyon County in February of that year. The Doctor gives some amusing instances of the crude means by which he was often obliged to treat his patients. He relates that in 1879 he was attending three brothers who were sick with typhoid fever in one house. Two of the brothers were convalescing at this particular visit, but the other had a temperature of 106 degrees and was wildly delirious with other grave symptoms. "I knew," says Doctor Neill, "that a cold bath was imperative, for cold sponging had not reduced the temperature. Of course, there was no bathtub, but there was a pork barrel outside. As the mother was tired, I filled the barrel with water from the well, removed the patient's shirt, dumped him into the barrel and watched him for fifteen minutes. When his temperature markedly subsided, I pulled him out of the barrel, dried him and shortly afterward he fell into a quiet slumber. I directed the barrel to remain, and if he became delirious again to repeat the bath. The bath was repeated twice and he eventually recovered." PRACTITIONERS IN OSCEOLA COUNTY Dr. Frank S. Hough, one of the leading surgeons and physicians of Sibley, is a Kentuckian by birth, both of his parents being natives of Michigan. His mother, before marriage was Candace C. Bates, the daughter of Mr. And Mrs. George Bates, the former being a first cousin of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Hough's father was a brush manufacturer in Detroit and when only twenty-eight years of age was president of the Common Council and acting mayor. Afterward he was a member of the Michigan State Legislature and retired to California. Doctor Hough had a considerable experience as a newspaper man, both in Michigan and Ohio, before his graduation from the Michigan College of Medicine and Surgery in 1890. After practicing in Detroit and teaching on the faculty of his Alma Mater for seven years, he came to Sibley in August, 1897, and has met with marked success in his profession. In 1911, he established a private hospital in Sibley. Doctor Hough has been coroner of Osceola County and is now serving as health officer of Sibley. During the World war he served as chairman of the County Red Cross and of the local Draft Board. He volunteered for active service a year before the armistice was signed, but was retained as chairman and medical examiner of the Draft Board until August, 1918. He then enlisted, was examined at Norfolk, Nebraska, commissioned captain and in November, 1918, ordered to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Afterward he was discharged into the Medical Reserve Corps, reenlisted in that body and in July, 1924, was promoted to Major. In 1925, he was elected commander of the George E. Mudge Post, American Legion. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical organizations, and in 1920 served as president of the Northwest Iowa Medical Society. Dr. William E. Ely was a graduate in medicine of the University of Michigan, and located at Ocheyedan in 1987. He died at Doctor Hough's hospital at Sibley in February, 1922. Dr. Frank P. Winkler is a native of Ida Grove, Iowa, and in 1906 received his medical degree from the University of Illinois. He first practiced in Chicago, and in 1912 located at Sibley. He is a member of most of the leading medical and surgical societies and has served as president of the Northwest Iowa Medical Society. During the World war he was identified with the surgical staff of the base hospital at Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois, and was also commissioned examiner for the United States Veterans bureau of Northwest Iowa. Doctor Winkler is the owner and manager of a private hospital and examiner for forty-two old-line life insurance companies. Dr. K.A. Sporre, of Harris, has received two degrees from the University of Iowa, including that of M.D., and has been mayor of the town and president of the school board. Dr. J.B. Padgham, a graduate of the State University, has practiced at Walcott, Harris and Ocheyedan, and at present operates a hospital at the place last named. Dr Frank Reinsch is of Chicago birth and education. In 1917, he graduated from the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery. He then served two years as an intern in the Cook County Hospital, and in November, 1919, after seeing service as first lieutenant in the World war, commenced the practice of medicine and surgery at Ashton. Dr F.E. McConoughey is a native of Iowa, graduated from both the Marion-Sims College of Medicine at St. Louis and the Creighton Medical College, at Omaha. He practiced in Southwestern Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado prior to September, 1924, when he located at Melvin. Chapter 16 Pages 553--557--Religions The Coming of the Methodists to Sibley The first settlers began coming to Osceola County in the spring of 1871. Slight improvements were made during the summer and most of the settlers returned to their former homes in the fall to avoid the long winter under poorly prepared conditions. The first preaching service was held at the house of Elbridge Morrison, one and a half miles west of Sibley, by Rev. S. Aldrich, who was making Osceola County his home at this time. Rev. Ira Brashears, a one-armed soldier of the Civil war, was assigned to the missionary field of O'Brien, Sioux, Lyon and Osceola counties. Rev. John Webb, who was in charge of the work at Spirit Lake, was directed to divide his time with Sibley. Accordingly on the 19th of April, 1872, the Rev. Messrs. Webb and Aldrich met about a score of good Methodists at the house of A.M. Culver, one and a half miles south of Sibley, and there organized a class - the first religious organization in Osceola County. At the first session of the Northwest Iowa Conference, held at Fort Dodge, in September, 1872, Rev. John Webb was assigned to the Sibley mission, which embraced Osceola County. In the following year, a substantial frame meeting house was completed. Twenty years afterward, then living in Des Moines, Rev. Mr. Webb had this to say of his early experiences in Osceola County: "In June, 1872, in company with Mr. James Block, I left Fayette County, this State, to visit my son and others, who had gone to Osceola County to locate claims. I was directed from Lakeville to go to Ocheyedan Mound, and was told that when on the mound I could in all probability see the tents in which McCausland, Brooks and W.W. Webb were living. I went to the mound and on top of it, but could see no signs of life in any direction. Mr. Block and myself then went down to the banks of the Ocheyedan and camped for the night. The next morning we started in search of the boys, and about noon found them one mile east of where Sibley now is. We spent a few days with them and our horses were picketed out by the foreleg. While the horses were thus secured, something gave them a fright, when they ran the full length of the rope and brought up so suddenly that both turned somersaults and one of them was killed. I liked the country and that fall took charge of the Spirit Lake circuit; the next year took charge of the Sibley circuit, and formed the first class ever formed in Osceola County at the house of A.M. Culver. I built the first Methodist Episcopal church, or enclosed it, and Rev. Mr. Brashears finished it. "While I was living at Sibley that early day a young lawyer came to town, who was not very scrupulous, and he persuaded the Board of Supervisors to pay him $20,000 to recover certain monies due from Woodbury County to Osceola. I heard of it and going to the courthouse where the board was in session, requested them to hear me and they consented. I told them they would regret the day that they issued the warrant and gave the general reasons why such an official act should not be done; and ever as an outsider I made a motion to the board and the crowd that Blackmer be allowed $500 retainer and a per cent afterwards; and I added to the motion that the hiring include all the lawyers, or the remainder would be coming in for a share. J.T. Barclay, Esq., who was standing close by me, moved an amendment that the preachers also be added, but they were not. This was the last ever heard of the suit against Woodbury County. "When our Methodist church at Sibley was ready for dedication, we met Sabbath morning, and just before the time to commence public worship and while some of us were standing on the steps of the church, it was discovered that something was coming from the Northwest, which looked like a cloud; but still it could be seen that it was not a cloud, and upon its nearer approach we could then see that it was a swarm of grasshoppers. This so disconcerted and discouraged the people that it was impossible to hold them for the purposes of dedication that day, and it was deferred. The ravages of these pests which followed are known to old settlers." In 1896, the original church of the Sibley Methodists was sold to the German Presbyterians, and a new building was erected on the old site. CATHOLICS ALSO PIONEERS IN OSCEOLA COUNTY Osceola is one of the counties of Northwestern Iowa in which the Catholics obtained a strong foothold at an early day. In Osceola County they were the first of the religionists to organize. The centers of their activities were at Ashton and Sibley. The German Catholic families settled at and near Ashton, and the Irish Catholic families in the Sibley neighborhood. The first Catholic settlers in Osceola County were Nicholas Boor and John Streit, who came on the 19th of June, 1871, and filed an claims in Gilman Township. The first mass celebrated was in May, 1873, on the southwest quarter of section 16, Holman Township, at the home of Patrick Larkin, by an assistant priest of Rev. Father Lenehan, of Sioux City. This was the commencement of the Sibley parish and the St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church. The parish was first served by priests from Sioux City, Le Mars and Sheldon. In 1883, the congregation bought the old Sibley schoolhouse for church purposes, but in 1897 erected a house of worship and purchased cemetery grounds. In 1880, the part of the congregation residing in the Ashton neighborhood consisting of German Catholic families had greatly increased in numbers, and decided to form a separate organization. In September of that year a meeting was held to decide upon a location for a church building. The Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company had offered to donate five acres of land if the Catholics would build the church near the Ashton station, but John Streit donated the same amount of land from his farm, two and a half miles from the station, but nearer to the center of the settlement. Mr. Streit's offer was accepted, and in September, 1880, Rev. Father Lynch, resident priest at Sheldon, celebrated mass in Mr. Streit's house. In March of the following year, Rev. Father Lynch said mass for the first time in the new but un-plastered little church, representing the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The congregation did not grow much until church was moved to the railroad station in 1885. Land was then bought for a parish cemetery. The first resident priest was Rev. James McCormack, who came in June, 1888, and in the following spring erected a substantial building for a parochial school, which he placed in charge of the Sisters of St. Francis. In October, 1893, a new and worthy house of worship was erected, and five years later the growth of the parish and consequent increase of child population made it necessary to have a larger and more complete school building and an enlarged Sisters' residence. These expansions and accommodations have made the Sibley congregations secondary to the church in Ashton. OTHER CHURCHES AT SIBLEY In the fall of the year that the Methodists organized their first class at Sibley (1872) the Congregationalists organized a society in the public schoolhouse. Most of its members lived east of Ocheyedan Creek. The home missionary on the field and first pastor on the new church was Rev. Benjamin A. Dean. In the year following the organization of the church it was admitted to membership in the Sioux Association of Congregational Churches, a district association of the State body. In 1875, the first meeting house of the society was erected opposite the northeast corner of the courthouse square - the building which was purchased by the German Lutheran Church in 1896. In the latter year, the Congregationalists built their larger church, one of the features of which is a fine memorial window placed in honor of Mrs. Ellen P. Dean, wife of the first pastor, both of whom did so much to establish the organization. The first Congregational Church of Sibley is one of the strongest religious bodies in Osceola County. The German Lutheran Church of Sibley is a flourishing organization and its pastor also serves congregations at Harris and in Viols Township. The Baptists have also supported a church since 1974; and there is a German Presbyterian Church, which dates fro 1895. Besides the Catholic Church of Ashton, the Methodists have been well organized since 1882. Ocheyedan, in the northern part of the county, is the center of quite a religious field, represented by the Methodist Episcopal Church, which has been in existence since 1872 and owes it to Rev. John Webb, the first Methodist minister of Sibley; the Congregational Church, organized in 1888, and the St. Peters Evangelical Lutheran Church, established in 1901. The first German Lutherans of Horton Township came into Osceola County from Will County, Illinois, in 1883, and in 1887 organized a church known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church. About 1896, some Presbyterian Germans in West Holman Township, a few miles west of Sibley, organized Hope Church, and in 1899 the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Harris was dedicated by Rev. Dr. Wilson S. Lewis (afterward Bishop Lewis). These are three representative churches of rural districts. Transcribed by Kevin Tadd