Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-09-05

To Hiram N. Tong and Napoleon Au
buchon Is due the honor of establishing
this town. They purchased the groin
now within the limits of the city prop
er, and Immediately upon the election
N N declaring Ironton the county
"a seat, laid the land out int,
FS town lots. Every alternat
lot ON main street land per
haps OF others) was given +
the county in aid of the build
ing of the courthouse, and oil
q day specified these were sold at pub
lie auction to the highest bidder. Sew
eral thousands of dollars were nette'
to the new county in this way, ant
work upon the palace of justice began
without delay, and it stands to-day on
of the honored buildings with an ante
war record. Shortly afterward, th'
brick now occupied by Halter & Esen
vein wal constructed by Tong & Car
son, who ran a mercantile business il
it until the war came on. The Lope;
store building was built and occupied
by B. Y. N. Clarkson about the cam
time. The Odd-Fellows, in conjunc
ton with Mitchell & Evans, carpenter
and builders. put up the two-story
frame at present the residence of Mrs,
j. A. Hughes, and for many years the
second floor withstood the antics of the
sportive goat and resounded TO the
tread of men in mysterious conclave
met. The lower story has been carpeu'
ter-shop, billiard room, church, saloon,
p inting-office, drug store, millinery
parlor, etc., etc. Its uses have been
more and varied than that OF
any other building in town. The s'Blue
Store" is another of the creations of that
period, erect d by A. B. Guild, who
ran a furniture store on the first floor,
while the upper story was used for q
saddle and harness shop. Uncle Henry
Valle's abode was first the property OF
one Becquette-his Christian name
have forgotten-and it has outlasted in
the vicissitudes Of time many q more
pretentious neighbor.
One of the first buildings toward the
making of the town was that now the
dwelling of Mrs. Henrietta WEIGH. 1t
held a printing-ofice (here the Far
mace was published by Col. James
Lindsay and the newly established
post-ofice, Uncle Davy Humphreys be-
ing postmaster. The present ''Bud-
weiser Depot" was built a few months
later, a tailor-shop taking up the first
floor, while a Baptist periodical was
published from the second story. Good
old Parson Polk was editor. 1t will be
remembered by the survivors of the
time that he was miserably murdered
shortly after ''the raid" by one of those
predatory companies that 30 often dis
credited the cause of the Union-mur-
dered for money he was supposed to
have concealed about his premises. /
knew him we'll for years, and in all
my recollection q recall no man
more graced with the apostolic virtues.
Like the Man he followed, his life was
an a%potheosis to love and self-sacriice.
That he should have been suffered to
so quit his sphere of usefulness and
devotion is of the unsolvable mysteries
that bridge the chasm between the f.
mite and infinite. The principal access-
DRY to his murder was, after the close OF
the war, tried and acquitted. It was
a travesty upou justice, and to this day
the bones of the victim moulder una
venged-so far as human ken may
grasp-in a lonely grave unnoted and
forgotten by the passing throng. He
was not a victim of the war but of the
basest passions which rule men when
the restraints of society are removed.
Why does not the pulpiteer militant
pause to consider the innocent victims
ever and aver sacrificed to the God of
War-though his hosts are led in the
of Him whose life was Love;
whose mission was Peace?
The Presbyterian Church was bull
in 1S59-mainly by the RUSSELL family
and until a week ago stood a land
mark in the town. Now, like those
whose hands wrought out its walls and
covering, its foundations and its dome,
it is of the dead past. Faithful and
true to its sacred purpose, in the calm
of blessed peace and through the vicis-
STUDIES of hell-born war, it stood a
tribute from weak humanity to awful
though loving Omnipotence. The
prayers of the repentant, the supplica-
tions of mothers for hayward sons, of
gentle wives for erring husbands-the
b~reathings OF gratitude for blessings
given-all these consecrated its hal
lowed precincts and sanctifed 1t as
could no priestly ceremony. Into its
portals went trembling bride and hap
py groom, to emerge into q new world
"a world of responsibility az of hap
piness before unknown to either life.
Thither was carried the helpless infant
and christened to the u Of right
eousness. And there before the altar
was placed the frail tenement, deserted
of its godlike attribute, ere the earth
closed over it forever! It's walls were
draped and festooned with sad and
happy memories. But it had served
it's time, and soon upon its foundation
will arise another edifoe. But, for
years, while the retina of the eye re-
ceiyes the impress of the new, will the
plain old church remain engraven
upon the heart of many a worshipper.
Chamberiain's Cough Remedy a
Great Fayorite.