Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-05-13
PRESIDENT J. L. LONG TELLS OF
TRIP ACROSS STATE IN
AUTOMOBILE.
COVER 800 MILES
Seven Days Spent In Making Journey
and Thirty Towns Were Visited
Where Meetings Were Held
-Enthusiasm Shown.


That he is in earnest about good
roads Is easily discernible by a Pc
rusal of the account of the trip recently
taken, and which in it's course In
cluded Ottumwa where the party was
Joined by F. A. Nimocks, who comes
in for complimentary mention by
President Long.
Seven Days on Road.
The account of the trip is reported
by Mr.. Long In the following:
At 6 o'clock Thursday evening. May
4, the official car Of the Blue Grass
Road pulled up at the Grand hotel In
Muscatine after trip over the entire
line of the Blue Grass Road. In seven
days the party travelled about 500
miles, held meetings in more than
thirty towns and were everywhere
received with enthusiasm and hospi-
tally.
Make Thirty Towns.
To attempt to give detailed &C
count of the trip would be task
that the columns of the ordinary news
paper would not undertake. Starting
at Council Bluffs the tour included
stops at Glenwood, Malvern, Hastings,
Emerson, Red Oak, Stanton, Villisca,
Nodaway, Brooks, Corning, Creston,
Alton, Murray, Osceola, WOODBURY.,
Lucas, Charlton, Russell, Melrose, Al
bia, Blakesburg, Ottumwa, Agency, Ba-
tavia, Fairfield, Lockridge, Rome, Mt.
Pleasant, New London, Danville, Mid
dletown, and Burlington on the
straight through line and the party
then went to Ft. Madison from which
point they travelled over the south line
which comes up through West Point,
Hillsboro and Stockport to Fairfield
and then doubled back to Mt Pleasant
and went over the north line passing
through Winfield, Wapello and Grand
View into Muscatine.
Farmers Have Autos.
At many of the small towns crowds
of several hundred people turned out
to meet the party, which was scorted
practically all the time by large mum.
Der of autos filled with boosters. In
some communities nearly all the farm
ers have automobiles and there we
found the roads in the best condition.
At Winfield a speaker stated that
last fall he went out to where the
farmers were threshing and he found
seven autos lined up along the fence
Ill WHICH Iuo ucISAOOAo Aou SoAO ~
help thresh.
It would be hard to say what towns
excelled in their welcomes. At almost
every stopping place it seemed that
nothing more could have been done to
show the interest Of the community in
the project. Delegations met the car
in several places to request the party
to consider other routes and one or
two changes were made, where the In
terest along the route selected was
not sufficient to warrant locating 1t
there.
The work of organization is going
on rapidly and the success of the
movement is assured.
Biakesburg Favored.
From Ottumwa east and from Os-
ceola west the road Is now located in
all probability permanently provided
it is maintained according to the
agreements of the people living along
it. The location between Abba and
Ottumwa will doubtless be on the
Blakesburg route and between Osceola
and Charlton 1t will pass through
WOODBURY. and possibly Lucas II sat
isfactory interest is manifested along
the line. Between Charlton and Abba
two routes are under consideration.
One along the old state road, the
other by the way of Melrose. The
latter route will be expensive to make
satisfactory, but would be good route
if about $4,000 in work was put on 1t
and one or two changes made. This
will be settled in few days.
The Jackson 40" driven by Chas.
Steele, carried the party through with
out an accident or delay Of even a min
ute. Both the machine and driver made
decided hit with every one who rode
in the official car, and its performance
over all kinds of roads in all kinds OF
weather was. worthy Of sincere praise.
Nimocks Went Through.
Postmaster F. A. Nimocks Of OF
tumwa joined the party in Ottumwa
with the idea Of going as far as
Fairfield, and when there he decided to
go on to Mount Pleasant. BY this time
he was SO interested he decided to stay
with the party and remained through
the balance of the trip. He is one OF
the most active good roads workers IN
the state and raises the money IN OF
tumwa to keep two teams and men
busy throughout the season and these
men work under his direction. He also
personally takes charge OF this work
and has local reputation as an expert
on the grader and with the drag. That
he is something more than mere en-
thusiast is demonstrated by the fact
that he put in forty full days without
any pay, of course, on the graders and
drags last year. He is valuable man
at the meetings, too, for he tells what
he does and how he does it ard 1t
shows others can do likewise. He Is al
ways full of enthusiasm when talking
about the roads or his twenty months
old son.
Drag is Useful.
Malcolm >MacKinnon, who represent
ed the. Iowa Publishing Co., with the
party, said he had started out with the
idea that good roads" constituted
largely an issue for Late Young and