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

L vi IILII 4
decision of the court, and am sure It
stands in the records that Harmon
owns the ground from hell to heaven!"
AS remarked, we saw several houses
In Santa Monica Cor Ocean Park,
rather, it being continuation OF San
ia Monica on the beach, but under sep
arate municipal authority whose
caves were being sawed on on one
side, quite similar to the way folks
clip one wing of fowls to keep them
from flying.
Speaking Of our house reminds me
Of genial fellow whose first name
was Jake, who did the sodding OF our
ground and not only ours, but acres
Of ground in Ottumwa. Sorry ! cant
recall his name. He lived on the
sparsely settled fiat just east of the
Harrow farm and south of the rail-
road track. where also lived quite a
colony Of laborers. not one of whom
but that could have been said, good
and faithful servant" In those days
labor unions were unknown, and the
promptly at Z (and sometimes at 6 a.
M, as was my custom) and worked un-
til p. m. one hour for dinner at IL
m, was considered no good, or was
sick.
A good neighbor of ours, also, was
a plasterer named Bicksel (?) Another
was. believe, the person whom you
recently elected assessor, John F..
Peck. He was not related, believe, to
the James Peck family; and that
brings up another incident, when
Peck's boys. Andy and Jim, were run
ming livery In the old Dan Abraham
stand. There was celebration OF
some kind and a procession In which
the first steam fire engine was one Of
the attractions The boys had brag
team of grays hitched to the engine,
that yanked 1t along superbly until 1t
struck soft ground out there on Sec
ond, when they quit. 1t was notifying
to the boys, but the truth was that the
horses were too fat to stick to the job.
The elder Jim Peck was a redhot DEM
ocrat, who always wore a stunning
sash In every political procession, but
believe his ardor was dampened upon
one occasion when a man named CrOs-
sen from Eddyville, rode in one Of
them displaying a bloody shirt on a
staff. That caricature was condemned
by everybody, and think It was dis
placed before proceeding very far. It
came the nearest stirring up general
melee of anything of political nature
ever shown in Ottumwa. That particu-
lar procession was in the early days
Of the Farmers Alliance" Aside from
his political peccadilloes. Mr.. Peck was
a valued citizen.
When I read the name Morrell in
the Courier, l turned to my wife and
said, ooh, don't you remember how
used to take basket and go down to
the Morrell packing house and have 1t
filled with backbones, spareribs, pork
loin and lard, all for quarter?" Her
mouth fairly watered at the recollec-
ton and she sighed as she looked at
the five thin slices of bacon which
she had paid IS cents for and which
were to be broiled for our Easter
Sunday breakfast.
Aaron Melick-remember him? He
gathered up the local news for the
Courier. Indeed. the Courier never
knew what local news was until Aaron
pumped, life. vim and wit into it.
Judge Thomas Bigham-always a
Justice Of the peace, or something.
Lived on Main street, between Market
and Green. next door west of the
Spaulding building in which the Cour-
Ter was located at the time that Jay
w. Neighbor, it's foreman, took Mart
Gephart by the ear and yanked him
out from under case where COM
positor was setting up a serial story,
the copy hanging down to the floor
and Mart there reading It. In that
same room, Nick Musselman was in
the habit of bringing his noon lunch
in q quart tin bucket and taking out
home occasionally the bucket filled
with syrup, into which l would drop
a clean piece Of paper and lick 1t. One
day Nick had that bucket filled with
linseed OIL Say, I've never liked the
smell or looks of linseed oil since that
day, and can taste it yet!
NV daughter has just received a
small bunch of ferns which she or
dered from some eastern house. My
folks, as most everybody here, are try
ing to raise ferns. Some are success
full, but most are disappointed When l
see the struggling plants am trans
ported back to the hills that surround
Ottumwa, and especially to the valley
just off from and northeast Of Court
street, about quarter Of a mile dis
tant from the old log cabin of the
painter Grant, where acres of ferns
grew wild and to prodigious size. !
have seen them there taller than
was. They were looked upon merely
as weeds, but / know people here who