Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-12-11
NAUvoo MENACED
Affairs Of Fidelity Funding Company
Threaten Financial Disaster to llli-
nois Village and Surrounding Com
munity.

nolS village anu 0u''oo"s
munity.
Fort Madison, Dec. 1.-THE finan-
! cial disasters that have overtakenl the
/ Fidelity Funding company has wrought
the greatest injury to the inhabitants
OF the village of Nauvoo, H., and the
/ surrounding farming community.
! Not only on the quiet nuns and the
] ents whose hearts are bound up in st.
Mary's academy did the blow fall but
/ the troubles of the. New York funding
1 corporation means, apparently, the
{! dashing of the fondest hopes of the
whole community.
The situation was eagerly discussed
| by farmers as they met on the roads,
by women in the village streets. and at
a meeting of leading business men held
end the general decision was to trust
to the accused financier and particu-
larly to trust to the wisdom tf Sister
Mary, tine secretary of the academy.
thru whose efforts so much substantial
benefit already has come to the town.
! The plans of the head of the Fidel-
| ity Funding company included not
| only the turning of the quaint convent
| on the banks of the Mississippi into
leading educational institution of the
country, but had as one of their prin-
cipal features the building of a street
railway line to connect the town Of
Nauvoo with the outside world.
Nauvoo is the village which the Nor
mons built in 1889 and occupied until
they were expelled in 1876. The sweep
ing tides of trade and industry rail-
roads and commerce, have affected the
village but little in the sixty-two years
that have followed. The rich soil is
titled by we'll to do farmers, largely
German and Irish Catholics, but no
railroad reaches the place, and many
of the inhabitants live in the old
brick and stone houses deserted by the
Mormons in '46
Sisters Came in 1874.
The academy was founded in 1874.
and the ministrations of the Bene-
dictine sisters have so endeared 1t to
the people that one pan, not Cath
| Ollie, said when questioned as to the
possibility Of the school being swamped
by its financial difficulties:
| Never Why, this community would
rise up In arms before it would see st.
Mary's hurt" and as for money trou-
bles knocking it out, the thought
seemed too preposterous for him to fol-
low out. Even those who have not the
fervor of this man feel keenly the
interdependence Of the town and the
schools.
| A small boarding school for boys
under IA had been maintained in con-
nection with the academy. This was
formed into the spalding institute,
named for Bishop Spalding of Peoria,
and magnificent 100000 building
was constructed on the high bbluffs
overlooking the Mississippi river with
money obtained from Keiran.
Put in All Improvements.
This was followed by a power plant
erected at cost of $4,000, which can
supply the town with electric light as
we'll as the school, a parochial resi-
dence costing $4,000, and water works
at an expense of $4,000. The latter
| is also able TO furnish the village of
! 1900 people with the convenience of
| running water. The next step proposed
was to build new academy building,
at cost of 100000, and turn the pres
ent one over to the nuns for a con-
vent They occupy at present the old
Mormon arsenal, built in the '40s.
To cap the climax Of these improve
ments which doomed the town as it.
had not been doomed in half cen
fury Keiran was induced by the bust
ness men of the town to undertake the
| financing of an interurban to connect
| It with railroads and with the great
network of electric lines that spread
from st. Louis almost to Chicago.
Miles of grading had been done on
this and several bridges built when the
panic Of 1907 stopped operations. Since
then the town and the farming COM
munity and the neighboring towns
thru which the interurban was to run
have been living In the hope that after
election the work could proceed.
Her objection.
ri wish my dentist wasn't so real
istic.' said Mrs, Jenner Lee Ondero.