Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1902-05-22
Van Gorder's Automobile.

We notice by the Fontanelle Observer that
GharIes Van Gorder, of Audubon, Iowa., has
bought an automobile and made a ride to Extra
from Audubon in thirty.two minutes-the dis
tance being seven or eight miles.
This is the same Charlie Van Gorder who
my and located at Extra more than M thirty wye years
agoE1ira was on the prairie, near the valley of
the Nishnabotna. Van Gorder was without any
means and clerked in little store on the west.
side Of the so.called public. square in Extra.
audubon county contained all told proba bly, one
thousand people. Extra was the county seat.
The nearest railroad point was Atlantic twelve
or fifteen miles down the valley. If you went
to livery stable to hire rig the man generally
claimed that it was sixteen miles. AS matter
the square there was rude log house in which
the county offices We're kept. Van Gorder was
county treasurer; John w. Scott was county
clerk and a man by the name of A. 1. Brainard
was recorder. On the north side of the square
there. was little hotel that was one-story
building with the loft utilized as sleeping
apartment. If Bob Flynn is alive he could re-
in the loft of that tavern one night in the
hrst h1rst week OF March, 1871; and when they awoke
the next morning they found half inch of snow
on the covers. The landlord was red-headed,
which in cold weather served to keep the house
warm, with little help from other sources. Char
treasurers of that day who kept his accounts in
condition to settle with the board of supervisors
They used to say that when the board called on
one of his predecessors for settlement they gave
hlm few hours notice SO that he could make
hurried drive over to Old Man s. F. Pray's to
borrow the money to make his accounts square
and make a showing to the board. Van Gorder
did not have to do that way otherwise he would
not now own an automobile. Many things have
happened since that day in March, 1871. Van
Gorder was sober, industrious and frugal. Be-
SIDES being county treasurer he clerked in the
" Bush Store. !" Everybody knew about Bush's
store, as it was the only one in Extra. Mr.. John
D. Bush was down East Yankee who was popu-
lar with the pioneers In those times there were
no branch railroads in any, of the beautiful val
leys of Iowa. The choicest lands could be bought
for $500 to $500 an acre and even less and men
like Van Gorder had sense enough to buy them
Men who bought Iowa lands at SIS 90 an acre now
ride in automobiles and others are kicking them
selves because they did not buy at the right time
But think of riding up and down the old 'Botna
valley in an automobiles; down through Old
Doctor Billiards. vast estate of rich bottom
lands and heavy timber, soaring all the horses
and cattle that happened to be near the public
highway! We presume that Charlie Van Cor
der lives in brick house, while there was not
brick house in all that country when he wore
yarn suspenders and promised a struggling
young newspaper man the tax-list, there being
had predicted the automobile or even the tele-
phone in those days his sanity would have been
doubted. If man had undertaken to ride from
Extra over to Old "Nattyn Hamlin's to get
some of the real essence of " Old Kentucky, y in
an automobile, he would have been shot from
the way-side by some squirrel hunter out of pure
fright. Yet Charley Van Gorder is riding from
his bank in Audubon to his bank in Extra in an
automobile in thirty minutes The twentieth
century will have to put ice on its head?-F Friday
Des Moines Capital.