The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1871-11-23

|
umn. He says it works admirably.
THE FLEMING HoUsE.-The good no.
tel, 30 long known as the Union
House. has taken "new DEPARTURE
and will be hereafter known a. the
Fleming House.
While thinking about chronicling the
above item, it occurred to us that thi.
hotel had been one Of the institutions Of
Upton for q good many years and upon
begging Mrs. Fleming for a little in
formation concerning it's origin, rice and
progress, We received a store Of facts
aud incidents Of early times in fifteen
minutes which it would require hours
aud columns to exhaust
Patterson Fleming and his wife Cath.
crime came from Davenport to Roch es
ter, via oxwagon express, in 1885,
There they stayed sixteen months and
kept tavern" in very primitive style
you will believe, since for six months
Mrs. F. did all her cooking over y fire
beside log. The first meal she pre-
pared As iandlady was in this way. and
for Judges Williams aud Lowe, OF the
territorial courts.
One Van Antwerp, about this time,
was building and launching barges
at Rochester We in one season) for the
purpose Of carrying produce to market.
Mrs. Fleming boarded his hands, aud
the first fifty dollars paid bought her .
cook stove. which by this time she coul Id
certainly appreciate.
The County Scat was hardly quieted
at this dale, and one of the great holds
Of the Roche.terians was the navigabil
ity OF the Cedar. A steamboat wa. in
duced. therefore, torun up during spring
high water, and on its arrival great
jubilee was held, at which the Fleming
tavern entertained the five hundred
guests-well, no doubt.
At tho end Of the sixteen months,
Mr., Fleming was appointed County
Clerk by Judge Williams, and remov-
ing to Upton, then the newly made
is a part Of the present hotel in which
they have entertained guests for more
than twenty-nine consecutive years. 1t
was then one story frame, containing
the three rooms now the bar room, sit.
ting room and bed room.
In this bar room all the public relig-
ious services in Upton for three years
were held. 1t also served as an Office
for the County Clerk, Recorder. Sheriff
in fact for all the county officers. As
we'll As the post-otiice, Mr. F. being p.
NJ Here, also Justice J. X. Snyder,
held his court and administered the law.
r. NJ. Long was then Recorder and Geo.
Mccoy, Sheriff. At this time there was
one other building on the north side of
the squaie--a log one on Reichert's cor
ner-and the old court house wa just
being commenced.
The "reminiscences OF that first five
years, during which the old house time
and again entertained more guests, out
side or in, than the new one would think
Of doing, are many and interesting. but
we cannot attempt to give them. After
a length Of time it was made Il two story
house Of the same eize. and some ten
year, late! was more than doubled By aD
addition, which improvement left the
place sadly under debt and mortgage ut
the death of Mr.. f., twelve years ago
this Thanksgiving day.
Things looked dark, no doubt, but
Mrs. Fleming did not dispair, was not
the Departing kind, and, keeping her
family of eight children all about her,
Except whom the two eldest boys left
her for Uncle Sans service) she worked
to such purpose that within three years
the debts were all cancelled and the
home released from mortgage. The
Union House" was headquarters for
volunteers in recruiting days, and board
ing the sojers" helped materially to
this end.
Since then the house has been much
farther enlarged and improved, and to-
day it is quite large enough for the good
business it does, we'll ard newly fur
nishei, and well and popularity kept.
Aleck, the clerk, is to the manor born
and bred. Mrs. +. will he readily be
lieved to have some experience in y
Iandlady'a duties and. in \ word, we
cordially recommend the Fleming
House" to ali.