The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-04-01
four hundred women on horses rode

four hundred women on horses rode
from here to Decatur City,
Il will now tell you about the
size of Leon at the end Of 1854" she
said. eve had four stores, forty
residences, eighty-five Inhabitants, a
school house, and court house on
it's way to completion
did they have shows them ask
ed James.
"Once in great while we had one
ooh, yes!" they both cried.
"Well, it was in the court house
and the charged five and ten cents.
The show was given by family of
seven. The mother and oldest boy
were both violinists. A girl about
sixteen sang, Lily Dale, and we all
thought it was SO pretty. One of the
boys sang comic song and | can re-
member at the last of it he sang
about having the yellow fever. When
he got through he turned around
and there was a great big yellow
patch on his back. We all laughed
and laughed at that"
did you have churches, and
lodges, and newspapers, and
Just one at time, DEAR said
grandmother "Y es, in time we had
them all. Our first church was the
Methodist and at first it had just
seven members. There was no chap
el or minister at first SO we met at
the homes and different ones led the
meetings"
"And as to the lodge and newspa-
per they were started in 1865. The
first lodge was the Odd Fellows and
the first paper The Leon Pioneer.
P. H. and George Blinkey were the
editors of the paper.
"When l was telling you about the
first parties. Shall | tell you about
it," their grandmother asked.
Eyes! Yes!" they both cried.
at was at Frank Finley's. They
lived on the lot north of where Fred
Teale's house now stands. His folks
had gone to Des Moines so he decid-
ed to have a party. He had been at
camp meeting, SO he decided to turn
the party into church. He wrote a
sermon and committed it to memory.
After we all got there church start
ed He said such funny things that
we laughed until we were almost
sick But when his folks came home
he had a narrow escape from a whip
ping"
did you have Fourth of July cele-
brations?" asked James
Eyes, we did and l will tell you
about the first one in Leon their
grandmother answered, tit was in
1855. Then there were large maple
trees between where our court house
and Kraft's clothing store now
stands. Two tables we're built under
these, and we all took our dinner
there and put it on the tables. We
had chicken, vegetables, pies, cakes.
bread, butter, jams, jellies, pork and
beans, cookies, and everything your
great-grandmothers could make so
we'll. After dinner the tables were
cleared away and several people
made short talks
did you shoot fire-crackers %
asked James.
'No, we didn't have fire-crackers
then. All we had was a large can
non that was shot off once or twice.
We didn even have flags"
Did you have trains?' asked
Louise.
mot till 1871 when the C. B. &
@. went through here. We didn't
even have a stage coach till 1859.
Then line from Eddyville to Oma-
ha was established and passed
through Leon. Firm Ogdon was the
general manager. He did about the
same things Uncle John does on the
train"
did Leon grow all of this time?'
questioned Louise.
ooh, yes. BY 1868 we had nice
little town. l will try and tell you
a few things we were so proud of.