Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1875-06-30
A LIVE IOWA CITY.

The Water Power At Ottumwa, Its
improvements. and the Consequent
Prospects Of the Place-ManuIac.
turing Interests Generally.
Correspondence Of the Inter Ocean
OTTuMwA, IA, June %, rs.
The citizens of Ottumwa are at
length striking out" for . big manu-
featuring city. 1t has been known for
years that there was 1iret-class water
power at this point, and it needed
backbone and boldness only to utilize
It. That 10 to be done. The Ottum-
Wa Water Power Company, with .
capital of 500, 0OO, has contracted with
D. B. Sears & Son, of Rock Island, 10
put up dam, ETC., to be completed
during the year 1875. The dam will
raise the water 8 feet, which, with ~
feet of natural fall, will give 101a feet
of head at tho point at which the
company will sell the power. This
point is only two squares from tho
center of the city. The company has
26 acres to lay of in mill lots for util-
izing the power. The race leading
from the dam to the land mentioned is
one mile long. 1t is to be 1913 feet
wide and seven feet deep, and, with
the head and fall obtained, will pro-
duce 2,4OO horse power. The company
will put up large industrial building
with wheel attached, for the purpose
of leasing to manufacturers. An oil
mill and merchant Touring mill will
use this power, and negotiations are
pending for other manufactures. Tho
utilization of all this power ought to,
and probably will, double the popula-
ton of Ottumwa during the next five
years.-An the leading men of the
city arc Interested fn this en-
terprise, there being 400 or 500
stockholders. Among them are
Charles f. Blake and W. B. Bonnifield
Presidents of the two national banks,
A. II. Hamilton, editor of tho Daily
Courier, Daniel Eaton, William Dag
gett, J. W. Carpenter, GENERALLY. NJ.
Hedrick, w. 7. Harper, and fifty other
prominent citizens. d. B. Sears has
had forty years experience in build
ing dam aud improving water power,
and guarantees stability for the work
here against flood and ice for two
years. The contractors forfeit $4,000
Ii the work docs not stand. This new
and grand enterprise has given pow
erful impulse to business generally.
The carpenters hammer makes the
music this year all over the city except
July Fourth.
The Ottumws Iron Works, which
now includes the American Iron
Works, have two new brick machine
shops, each 40x9O feet, a brick foundry
60x7O, and pattern shop 30x4O, and
melting $50 tons of iron annually. At
these works the famous johnson ruff
flers for sewing machines are made by
the 100000, more or less, annually,
supplying the market, for aught /
know, for halt the sewing machine
world. Something like thirty or forty
women. find employment in this de-
partment of the works. A beehive in
clover time presents no buster appear
ance than the Ottumwa iron works
just now, and, suppose, the year
round. The other shops-the four or
FIVE carriage factories, the furniture
factory, the stave factory, the planning
mills ETC., etc, are driving business as
though the world might end before
1875 does, and they had twelve
months work to do in six.
Ottumwa has two daily and four
weekly papers and almost everybody
can read and write and spell.