The Oskaloosa herald., 1917-01-25
EARLY osKALoosA.

Editor Herald: | greatly appreciate
the privilege of reading the dear cid
Herald, as it brings to me much in
formation concerning friends and
heighbors at the old Mahaska home,
and a perusual of its pages carries me
back to those early days when Henry
C. Leighton and Will H. Needham
we're conducting it. II don't seem so
very long, and yet as / count the years
the sum total is A. 1t was the LIST
day of January, 1878, that ! landed in
New Sharon with a Washington hand
press and sufficient amount of type
to begin the publication of the New
Sharon Star OF the men then en-
gagged in business there, not one is
left, and there are but four now liv-
ing in the town that We're grown at
that time: John l.. Sanders, David
Galbreath, George b. Gould and
Michael McNamara"-jus four and
no more" And of the charter mem
bers of the Masonic Lodge there,
started in 1874, | am the only one left.
These facts convince me that it is
really quite long time since | settled
in Mahaska county, and when | think
of the many near and dear friends that
have gone over the divide, feeling
of loneliness comes over me. As |
watch them go one by one | wonder
who will be next to depart, but after
all it matters little, just so each one
fulfills we'll life's highest mission.
Great changes have come to Oska-
loosa since first ! visited the beautiful
little city in 1864, stopping at the
Downing then an old frame building
on the site Of the present structure,
Major Downing was then in personal
command and he was an expert at Civ
ing genial smiles that sent fellow on
his way feeling that he had been
punched by a jolly good fellow.
LoughTidge was in congress then.
Jim HinesIey was sheriff He lost an
arm in firing an anvil at a Fourth of
July celebration at Indianapolis, the
ancient city beyond the classic
Skunk where Jim Bridges was an
early settler, subsequently elected to
the legislation and later made his
home in Oskaloosa. Hinesley was
followed by the big hearted and big
fsted, Jim Hetherington. He by Mar
uuis Barr. Judge Crookham was. at
his prime. Judge Sewers and Nj. E.
Cults leaders at the bar, were in the
legislature and took an active part in
the fight for q new capitol building at
Des Moines. ]. B. Bolton, w H. Has
kell, John F. Lacey, Bill Kenworthy
and Judge Blanchard were leading
legal lights. Then of the bunch OF
court house rats" we call to memory
Judge Thompson, N. Gavin, Judge
Johnson, LeSuer, Henry Kendig, Capt.
Warren and others whose names are
rot at my pencil point at this moment,
but very few of these are now living.
Oskaloosa was quite town then,
believe it was in 1873 that big fire
wiped out a lot Of buildings on the
south side of the square. Perdue was
mayor, then came Smith, and-well !
can't recall his name, but he was
known as Long George" There
were no paved streets in Oskaloosa
and mighty little good sidewalks in
those days, and in muddy time there
was no bottom, making four horses
necessary 20 haul an express wagon.
| In 1868 | lived on a farm four miles
northeast of What Cheer and hauled
wheat through Oskaloosa to Beacon
There being no railroads in Oskaloosa
at that time) and | cashed my grain
check at the bank at the southwest
corner OF the square. Hauling was
done in the country much of the time
to keep from freezing, but those were
jolly good days, with plenty OF hogs
hominy and sorghum molasses and
eggs and butter were not luxuries as
now, but plain cheap everyday neces
stiles. In my home in the Golden
state, where flowers bloom every day
in the wear, where the orange and
lemon are white in their bloom and
every day is Sunday, now and now
often live in memory over those dear
old days, but--welI | miss the friends
Of my earlier years, for no matter how
Pleasant your SURROUNDINGS. there arc
no friends like old friends"
California has had cold winter 80
far, coolest, with one exception. ever
saw here. One morning the govern
ment gauge showed 25 above. but my
thermometer noted %. and there was
ice as thick as window glass. For
more than month there were heavy
frosts every morning when it was not
raining. constituting an unpreee dented
long cold spell. The tops OF our near