Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-06-20

Sherman was a victim close by the
promised land. have passed over that
identical spot several times, but could
not realize that such a tragedy oc-
Cured there.
Where's old Tim Riordan? If he's
alive, I'll bet there's man who'll not
spit fire because speak of him as old
Tim. love to linger over the recok
lection of such grand men,. Then
there was another Irishman that
comes stepping out in regular bellig-
erent style, old Jimmy Brady, whose
son Pat was shoemaker and redhot
Fen1an. Wasn't 1t the great Fenian
celebration when the fireworks ali
went of at once there near the court
house? believe 1t was. MY family
was sitting in my jaunting car right
alongside Meeks fence, damned in an
immense crowd, when the pyrotechnic
display acted up. We had a steady,
sensible horse that understood when
told her to be steady, otherwise we
might have had trouble do not re-
member II anyone was hurt, but do
not see any reason why they should
not have been.
And old Ben Boulton Is fifty years
married man! Don't seem possible.
see that at the semi.centennial eel
ebration If their marriage they had a
pyramid cake ornamented by Ben
himself. Say, Ben, do you ember
the pyramid you built of maccaroons
on, so many years ago? What was that
Tor! don't remember, but I do re-
member how my hands were blistered
with the pestle with which we
crushed the almonds in the mortar
with which to make the maccaroons.
Ben married Miss Rachel Hobbs in
1861, the eventful year with the men,
DRY of which / opened up this epistle.
That's SO. l was in Keokuk at that
time. working on the Constitution. At
the same rack a Dutchman was stick
Ing type one night when graph was
heaVy and gnats voluminous. The
Dutchman was grouchy and finally,
along about o'clock in the morning
he slammed his stick down on the
case, swearing that there was an
easier way of making living than
sticking bottle-end BREWER. He got his
nat and passing around, asked the
boys to chip in. There were an even
twenty OF us at case, and an even
twenty dollars was chucked into that
nat without any questions or explain
atoms. do not remember now if Sam
Clemens mark Twain was on case
that night, but he was one of our gang
as was also Bob Burdette, Tom West
colt and Judge Amos" afterward "a
nous as General Kehoe. But, leaving
them out, early in the morning our
Dutchman came in and invited us all
out and down to his "holein-the-wall, )"
on the Main street. He had fitted UP
rookery with bottles and glasses It
IS hardly worth while pursuing this
description further, only to say that
no one OF that gang ever had his dol
lar redeemed in coin or other money.
That Dutchman became famous as the
centerpiece In the whiskey ring in
Grants time, the firm of Caesar e
Strackfe CD getting much notoriety-
and the first named was that Dutch
man!
Those Of you who remember the
old Congregational church, facing on
Court street, the one whose bell tower
was built in the rear and outside the
church, so convenient that one night
Paul Jeffries Sill Koontz and other
fellows like EN-, tied string to the
bell tongue and then got themselves
IN the bushes away up there where
the Devin residence was built at the
head of Court, and sat there for an
hour tolling that bell before it was
found that 1t was not witches doing
the prank-but that wasn't just what
started out to say about that church
Rev. B. A. Spaulding was the
pioneer preacher in that church.
After it was abandoned, gentleman
named e. ]. Turner opened up and
conducted in that building an agricul-
tural implement business. Some years
ago this same E. ]. Turner turned up
at Hoxie, Sheridan Co., Kansas, and
represented that county in the legis-
lature. We fellows who knew him got
him on the track and he was elected
to represent our sixth district in con-
gress. do not now remember whether
the Mcbride Bros. succeeded Turner
in the implement business there or
not They were Ottumwans, just the
same. There were three brothers,
Austin, William and John. They were
interested in coal mining, too. Well,
all those boys moved out to Kansas,
Austin and Bill as practicing attor-
neys and John as a newspaper pub
Usher. l believe Austin died, William
went down into Oklahoma and John
is at Boise City, Idaho, / think.
Have just received the copy OF