Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1917-03-01
Fighting a Railroad
By M. QUAD
Copyright. 1916. by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.
By Nj. QUAD

When the surveyors for the B. and B.
railroad reached within a mile Of the
| town of Scoville they were stopped by
the owner of a farm, who threatened
them with an action for trespass if
they set foot on his land.
1t was old Ransome who had lived
on that farm since he was born and
was now over sixty years old. Boy
and man, he had been known as stingy
and mean, and no one had ever dealt
with him a second time His wife was
about like him in her disagreeable way
The two seldom or never disagreed
with everybody else.
The town of Scoville wanted that
railroad and wanted it built at once,
but there was old John blocking the
way and his old wife backing him up.
1t must cross his eighty acre farm to
reach the town. The surveyors argued
and coaxed. but it was of no use.
The railroad finally guarded its sur
veyors and the line was run, but that
was only the beginning of the fight.
1t collected its forces and began the
grading. Old John was out there with
his gun and his wife was there with a
club but the lusty men laughed at
them and carried them off the scene,
and in a few weeks there was the
hooting and footing that the old couple
| dreaded to hear. They would not sell.
and the railroad waited for them to
propose some sort of settlement.
There was a highway about quar-
| ter of mile to the south of the Ran
some farm. and the new railroad cross
ed it at level. The soft earth was
| soon quilted out by the wheels of the
wagons. and this left the tracks three
OF tour inches above the surface. When
old John observed this he yoked up
his oxen and hitched them to his wag-
! on and Went after Il load of wood.
When he returned with it to the cross
ing he stuck there. The oxen could not
pull the wagon across the rails. The
old man sat down to patiently wait
Tor train to come along. One appear
ed in sight in about an hour and found
its progress blocked. 1t took all the
train hands and some of the passen-
gers to boot to get that wagon across
the track. There was Tuning and
threatening, but old John was very
quiet and calm. He repeated this per-
romance once day for week. Then
the railroad put down planks and the
scheme was defeated
We'll, We'll have to try some other
trick" said the old folks to each other.
And as a result Of their planning they
went out at night with big pail of
soft soap and smeared the rails for a
distance of thirty rods. The next train
that came that way did not whizz past;
1t stood still and whizzed, and il took
the best part of an hour and a barrel
OF sand to make the wheels go round
again and have a grip on the rails.
Old John was arrested for this soapy
trick, but they could prove nothing
against him, and he was discharged
l'from custody. After this a new at
tempt was made to bring about a set
Element. but it was doomed to failure
from the start. Then came another
adventure. Old John cut the grass in
his meadow, and while drawing it to
the barn to store away he drove across
the track at a point on his own farm
and wheel somehow came off the
wagon and dumped hay and vehicle in
a grand heap. There was Just time to
get the oxen out of the way when Il
locomotive of Il freight train plunged
into the mess. Hay and splinters flew
over half the county, and the whole
train was derailed at a cost of MANY
thousand dollars to the company.
There were two lawsuits begun i'm.
mediately. one by the company to
make the old man pay damages and
one by Old John to collect the worth of
a wagon and ton of hay The rail-
road folks could not show any scheme
on his part and was the loser in its
suit A jury also held that an en-
gineer who would slam bang into a
load of hay in broad daylight should
be held responsible. and old John got
about three times the value of the
property destroyed.
BY and by when the pumpkin season
had come old Mr. Ransome kindly
permitted passenger train to run into
a wagonload of them-that is. his oxen
stopped to rest when the wagon was
halfway over the track He was heard
shouting ut them ut the top of his voice
and seen to flourish his CAD in an ex-
cited manner, but he was forced to es-
cape to save his own life Pieces of
those pumpkins were picked up miles
away, and week after the wagon
was wrecked again. and one of the
oxen was converted into fresh beef
Here was groundwork for another
lawsuit and the jury decided that any
railroad that would strive to lessen the
pumpkin crop ought to pay for it right
smartly.
1t is very probable that the old
couple might have returned to the soft
soap trick if they had been given more
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