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CHAPTER XXI
CALMAR TOWNSHIP AND ITS MUNICIPALITIES From an article prepared by John B. Kaye for Anderson & Goodwin's Atlas of Winneshiek County, with additions of recent data. Calmar township, although directly in the path of the Government Military Road between Fort Atkinson and other western and northern points, ,and Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin (said from Bloody Run northward to be the best natural highway in the world), was not occupied by actual settlers as early as Frankville and several other townships in the county. In 1851 the county was organized, and the tax assessment list for that year (the first ever made in the county) of all persons whose property tax was over $10, contains only one name for what afterward became Calmar township, and that was Joseph Spielman, who afterward became the founder of Spillville. His assessed tax was $18.96, which showed him then to be the fourth richest man in the county; only John McKay, Frank Teabout and Benjamin Beard, all of Frankville township, exceeding him in assessable property. Thor. P. Skotland, the richest Norwegian settler of the township, arrived in 1850, and with J. J. Haug of Spillville and others, organized the township in 1858, the Scandinavian influence contributing the name; that having been first applied to the village. In the tax list for 1851, Mr. Skotland's name does not appear among those whose tax was more than $10, so he evidently put all of his personal means into land, and had not yet gotten his title from the Government. It is an unusual fact that Calmar township was settled in the first instance almost exclusively by foreigners. The western half of the township seems to have been settled about the same time as the eastern, and was occupied mostly by Germans, Swiss and Bohemians, while the latter portion attracted the Scandinavians, mostly Norwegians, but there was a sprinkling of Swedes and Danes. Most of these came directly from their fatherland but some came from other states, notably Wisconsin, and two at least from California, where they had been attracted by the gold fever of 1848-50 and stopped off on their return eastward from the gold fields. 199 PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
Among the first of these Norsemen to settle in Calmar township or at least on ground now occupied by it, were Thor. P. Skotland, Torsen Land, Lars Land and Andre P. Sandager, all of whom arrived in 1850, and with the exception of Lars P. Land, who at last accounts was residing in the State of Washington, have now passed over into the "undiscovered country." In 1851, these were reinforced by Ole Shervin, Sr., Ole Shervin, Jr., Erick Stovern, Ole P. Haugen, Andrew L. Kittlesby, Thron H. Engen and Thora Bagaarson. Of these there now survive only Andrew L. Kittlesby, who resides in the town of Calmar, enjoying a competency laid up while on the farm which he still owns, a mile south of town. Mr. Kittlesby is hale and hearty at the age of seventy-five. In the following year, 1852, Mr. Kittlesby was joined by his brother, Peter L. Kittlesby, and his father, Lars P. Kittlesby. The former is still living and also resides in Calmar. In 1853 Ole A. Flaskerud (father of the Flaskerud brothers),
Ole P. Bjornstad (father of Pete Olson and brothers), Erick Flaskerud
and Even Fristad (father of H. E. Fristad) joined the settlement,
but of that quartette not one now remains. In 1854 Alf. Clark, Peter Clawson and John P. Landin arrived. They and Charles G. Halbeck, who arrived a year or two later, became the nucleus of the village of Calmar.
The earliest settlers of the western part of the township made Spillville a business center. These were Charles Kroek, who settled in 1849, Joseph Spielman in 1850, George Herzog and Conrad Riehle in 1851. Of these Krock and Riehle were Germans, as also was Spielman, being a Bavarian, while Herzog was an Alsatian. All of these were married men, and all save Herzog brought their families with them. Spielman built a log house directly after his arrival. It was the first building in Spillville. Soon afterwards he erected a sawmill on Spielman's creek near its confluence with the Turkey river. This was washed away by a flood in 1853, but in 1854 was rebuilt, and a grist mill was built also-a collection of buildings which was then called Spielville, afterwards spelled Spillville. At this date Spielman's creek is said to have carried as much water as the Turkey river affords at the present time. The first Bohemian settlers arrived in the spring of 1854; they were Martin Bouska, Frank Payer and Wenzil Mikesh, Andrew Kubesh and John Novak and families. Of these Mikesh still survives and is living in Spillville. In 1854 also J. J. Haug, Jacob Stelzer, J. H. Hinterman, Felix
Meyer and J. H. Meyer and John Leebl and family arrived and settled
near the Sumner township line. These were all from Switzerland,
and with the exception of Haug PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY 203 and Stelzer had families. Of these J. J. Haug is the only one who survives. He is now living in his elegant home in Spillville, a town which he aided much in building up, and for many years was at the head of that community, and was general business factor for most of its people, whose confidence in him was, and still is, unbounded. Mr. Haug with Thor. P. Skotland and Lars Land, were the first trustees of the township and Charles G. Halbeck was the first township clerk. On the 12th. day of September, 1904, the remnant of the Bohemian first comers to the township joined their friends in Washington township and others of the surrounding country, in celebrating at Fort Atkinson the jubilee anniversary of their first settlement. It was a notable occasion, and a gathering of local historic significance. The town was full of people who had come to greet these local patriarchs of a foreign race, as well as other early settlers who were attracted by the occasion. Nearly all of these were represented by children and grandchildren, who had come to fill their places, and carryon the work under easier conditions, that their ancestors had begun fifty years before. A banquet in the grove, music by marching bands at the head of civic societies, and many citizens, paraded the streets. The making of speeches, the recitation of early experiences by the old settlers, and a game of baseball were a part of the program of the day. CONOVER As running waters even in arid lands are marked by belts of vegetation, so railways have called into being villages, towns and cities. Conover was born of hope, and engendered, in the fall of 1864, by the approach of the track of what is now the I. & M. division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. The original plat of the village was filed October 6, 1865. Conley's addition followed October 21, 1865, and Peterson's addition October 24, 1865. It would seem as though at that time the municipal fever was raging hot in the bosoms of the adjoining land-proprietors. For a couple of weeks there seems to have been a rush among them to get their fields laid off into town lots with bisecting streets and significant corner stones. It doubtless all looked very imposing when traced out on the paper plats with the accompanying field notes and explanations of the surveyor, and the statements of the proprietors dedicating the streets and alleys to the public, duly acknowledged, and certified by notary whose seal perhaps spoke officially over a red or blue wafer, and the whole marked "filed" by the registrar of deeds. It was a dream for the community up the road-a dream of joint official and municipal splendor. After arriving at Conover, the building of the road ceased for a while, and this added zeal to the faith of the inhabitants in the future greatness of the town. It was just after the close of the great Civil war, and ex-soldiers-officers as well as privates-swarmed the streets of the new town and dominated its business activities. The people were young, there were no grey heads or stooped shoulders in the community. Life was roseate, and fortune was on the way with gifts for all within the new metropolis. The place was the produce market for forty miles around in every
direction, PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY 204 except to the east. There was a stage line established to and from Decorah with daily coaches. Thirty-two saloons helped to keep the community from stagnation. Crops and prices were good, and the inhabitants were jubilant. Just before the turn of the tide, a petition signed by sixty-three-a majority of the resident electors of the village, was presented to County Judge G. R. Willett, by the Hon. David Noggle, agent and attorney for the petitioners, asking that the village be incorporated and constituted a town. Due notice was given and a day fixed for hearing and on the 17th day of October, 1866, by the order and finding of Judge Willett, the village became an incorporated town by the name of "CONOVER," as the order and finding has it spelled out in capitals. So was the thriving village born into municipal life, but the seeds of decay were germinating in its vitals even while the ink was yet undried on the judge's vitalizing order. Of course the agent and attorney of the electors, who as we understand, was right-of-way agent for the railway company, and owner of a part of the plat, could not be supposed to have known that the railway company would push the construction of the railroad northward, to the demoralization of the trade of Conover, but this it immediately proceeded to do, and the rapid decline which then set in ended in death of the new town when the "Decorah branch" was built in 1869. The town elected its first and only officers late in the fall of 1866 or in the spring of 1867, and before their terms were out they served as pallbearers to the defunct municipality. Capt. C. V. Jacobs was the first mayor, and as he never had a successor, his title and office as sole mayor of a town was an unique distinction; and only falls to the lot of but few men. Captain Jacobs afterwards removed to Cresco, and died there. Col. G. D. Rogers, Lieut. Charles Sydow, and I think Capt. Geo. Q. Gardner were among the councilmen, but as the town records were burned in a fire which occurred soon afterwards, the names of all the officers can not now be definitely ascertained. It seems that under the law as it then existed, the township clerk and trustees acted as the first election board for the new town. J. J. Haug, who was township clerk, informs me that after the election was over, there were not sufficient funds in the treasury of the new town to cash the claims of the election board for their services. Mr. Haug himself thereupon volunteered to cash the claims of his fellow judges, which he did, and took an assignment of their several accounts. But he never found anything in the city treasury afterwards, and he sorrowfully states that these election expenses are still unpaid. Fire and the moving of buildings and abandonment, followed soon the joss of trade. Some of the farmers re-occupied and cropped their "additions" to the town, and in a couple of years the town had shrunk back into the little village that it now is, a mournful reminder of a municipality that failed. Of the familiar names that appear on the petition for incorporation,
E. Mather heads the list and Co1. G. D. Rogers is second. Others
are George Q. Gardner, Charles Sydow, Mat Graf, William Summcrs,
J. H.Bakerand F. E. Baker, H. Giesen and A. Wheeler. PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY 205 SPILLVILLE In 1894 the village became an incorporated town and has given a good account of its municipal privileges, as is evidenced by its tidy streets and well kept walks. The election on the question of incorporation was held on the 9th day of November, 1894, and was carried by the close vote of 39 ballots for and 37 against incorporating. The first mayor, elected at a special election soon after the incorporation, was J. G. Mashek. His successors have been O. Kapler, J. J. Kovarik, G. F. Heuser and Stephen Krucheck, the present incumbent. Mr. Kapler was again mayor from 1906 to 1908, being followed for one term by Charles E. Houser, who in turn was succeeded in 1910 by G. F. Heuser and re-elected in 1912. A. A. Novak is town clerk, and J. W. Hrushka, J. C. Cekal, W. C. Kovarik, A. Balik and A. G. Fisher are councilmen. Spillville has a population of about four hundred, and has many handsome business buildings and fine residences. Most of its people are Catholic in their religious affiliations, and their place of worship is one of the finest and largest church edifices in the county. It stands upon a commanding eminence overlooking the town, and there is a fine parsonage and parochial school in connection. A great majority of the early residents of Spillville were from Bohemia, as a majority of those who still comprise its citizens are the children of Bohemians. Even with this second generation in possession, there is enough of the foreign flavor and piquancy about the place to make it one of the most interesting municipalities in the northeastern corner of the state. Quite a number of its early settlers had seen service in the Austrian army, and some of them had belonged to the musical bands in that organization, and had quite a thorough knowledge of music arid its principles. This fact had its effect in making Spillville the musical center of the county for many years, and that town has given to the country several eminent musicians, one of them, Mr. Joseph Kovarik, having been for a number of years a leading instructor in music is one of the great eastern conservatories. CALMAR The town of Calmar, in Calmar township, is the second largest
municipality of the county, Decorah only exceeding it in population.
In the United States census of 1900, the population is given as
1,003. The town is located on a picturesque stretch of upland--one
of the highest points in the state. The original village plat
which consisted of only sixteen blocks-four each way, had its
North street, now Lewis street, on which the Railroad Hotel Annex
and the Potter and Peter Meyer residences now face. This plat
contained forty acres, and was surveyed and platted by one Victor
Youngstadt, a surveyor from Dubuque. It includes land in the adjoining
corners of sections 25, 26, 35 and 36. PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY 206 The plat signed by said surveyor at Dubuque, September 15, 1854, was acknowledged by Alfred Clark on November 15,1854, before Aaron Newbold, district clerk; ordered of record November 21, 1854, by David Reed, county judge, and filed for record by Nelson Burdick, recorder of deeds of Winneshiek county, November 21, 1854. Thirty-two (32) blocks were added by a plat filed on the 22d day of November, 1856, the same surveyor as shown by the record having 'done the platting, and Alfred Clark and Charles G. Halbeck acknowledged the plat and dedication of this addition on June 20, A. D. 1856. These two plattings constitute forty-eight (48) blocks which comprise what is now generally called the original plat. This addition of thirty-two blocks pushed North street and its name up to its present location. By some oversight of the surveyor in the first plat-probably not making allowance for the variation of the compass from the true pole-the streets vary slightly in their direction from the cardinal points. This peculiarity was afterwards carried out in the platting of Peterson's addition, filed for record May 9, 1857, and of the Western addition, filed for record July 8, 1857. Both of these plats were acknowledged by John F. Peterson. Though this variation was originally a mistake, it fits well with the topography of the locality, and North street, for its greater part, traverses the ridge of a water-shed-the water to the north flowing northward and finding its way into the Oneota river, while that to the south of it flows in the opposite direction and finds its way into the Turkey river. Singularly enough, this same ridge marks at this place a well defined boundary line, or rather a part of it, between the driftless and the drift regions in the northeast corner of the state--between the "Switzerland of Iowa" and the balance of Hawkeyedom. The writer of this history being a lover of the old granite floaters, had a sixton boulder hauled from south of the street and deposited on his grounds abutting on its north side, and so bas the only glacial-drift specimen in town on that side. Alfred Clark, one of the founders of the town, was a Swede, and came to this part of the country from California. Clark at first named the place Marysville, after the California town of that name, but afterward the name Calmar was chosen, after Calmar on Calmar Sound, Clark's old home on the southeast coast of Sweden, which was made famous by the so-styled "Union of Calmar" on July 20, 1397, by which, through delegates from the councils of state of each of the three countries, for a long time all of the Scandinavian kingdoms were united under one crown. Alfred Clark and one Peter Clawson, a Dane, who came with him from California, put up the first building in the village. This was early in 1854. This building was only a temporary affair, but served the double purpose of a store building and residence. Clark and Clawson were the first merchants as well as the first residents of the village. This was before the village was surveyed or platted. Later in
the same year John P. Landin, also a Swede, came to the village.
Landin happened along at Fort Atkinson about that time, and on
making inquiry of Squire Cooney of that place as to the nearest
point where he could find some of his countrymen, was directed
by Mr. Cooney to Alfred Clark, whom he said kept a store at Whiskey PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY 207 Grove. Landin then came up and so got acquainted with Clark and his partner. Whiskey Grove was the name given to a grove of small trees about a half mile east of the store, and so the name got mixed with the village. Various explanations are given as to the origin of this name, the most plausible being that a couple of early bootleggers were secretly selling whiskey to the Indians and to the soldiers quartered at the fort: A posse was accordingly sent out from the fort to search for and capture the liquor, but the bootleggers heard of it, and at night buried their stock, a barrel of whiskey, in this grove. Landin, shortly after his arrival, as he a long time afterwards informed this writer, helped to survey the village plat by aiding to carry the chain, and when the plat was completed it was found that Clark & Clawson's store was squarely in Main street. Before the winter set in, Clark and Clawson had erected three other buildings each more substantial than the first. The first of these was "The Calmar House," a hotel which burned down in 1873. This stood on the corner now occupied by the Winneshiek County Bank. The second was another store building and the third a saloon building. Clark & Company then moved their stock into the new building, and the store on Main street was torn down and moved off the street. Clark was the first postmaster of the village and after him came P. M. Stanberg, D. S. Lovejoy, John Scott, W. L. Bass, S. V. Potter, John T. Ahern and E. C. Walker, the present incumbent, in the order named. In 1855 Landin had so thrived that he put up a frame building on a part of the ground now covered by the Anderson & Landin block, the old building being torn down to make room for the new block in 1873. In this old building Landin opened up a store, and sold groceries, both wet and dry, as was common in those days, and soon became well-to-do. The year 1868 saw the beginning of the building of the I. & D. branch of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, with Calmar as its eastern terminus and Junction with the main line, which latter had been built as far as Conover in 1865-6. The I. & D. division was built as far as New Hampton that year (1868), and added importance and brought business to Calmar as it was continued westward into the interior. . In 1869 the village of Calmar became an incorporated town by proper legal proceedings, and in organization as such was completed by the election of municipal officers in March, 1870. John Scott, who had settled here about the close of the Civil war, was chosen mayor and was re-elected in 1871. The mayors since then have been John W. Tower, 1872; S. V. Potter, 1873-4; A. E. Manchester, 1875; E. Pennington, Sr., 1876; John Scott, 1877; V. E. Strayer, 1878; Tim Ahern, 1879; V. E. Strayer, 1880; A. Dostal, 1881; C. W. Giesen, 1882; A. L. Kittlesby, 1883; T. Ahern, 1884; John B. Kaye, 1885-6; John Scott, 1887; A. McRobert, 1888, 1889 and 1890; J. S. Roome, 1891-2; H. Miller, Jr., 1893-4; E. M. Heften, 1895-6; Geo. H. Belding, 1897-8-9; S. R. Yager, 1900-1; Jacob Meyer, 1902-3-4-5-6, resigned in 1907. Dr. J. F. Conover elected to fill vacancy and re-elected in 1908, serving until April 1, 1910. Jacob Meyer was again elected it, 1910 and re-elected in 1912. The years as here indicated, up to 1898, commenced on the second Monday in March. In 1898 they began one week after the third Monday in March. PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
Calmar has an excellent and efficient waterworks plant with several miles of mains reaching in their circuit every building in the original forty-eight blocks, besides every building but one on the north side of North street. The town has a water tank of 2,000 barrels capacity, with an elevation of 100 feet. It has its own well and pumping house and apparatus complete, has hose, hooks and ladders and truck, and a regular organized fire company. In 1911 the first steps toward a sewage system were taken and last year (1912) a municipal gas plant for street lighting was installed. The public school building of the town, which was erected in 1898 at a cost of $12,000, is a model for ventilation, heating and convenience. The high school department for many years past has annually turned out its Class of graduates. These have been in constant demand as teachers, as well as in other lines where mental discipline and painstaking effort are the requirements needed.
All of these religious institutions are well attended and liberally patronized, and are exercising continued and successful efforts for good. The fraternal spirit of the times is represented by the Free Masons, Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen of America, Royal Neighbors and Catholic Foresters. The business interests of the town are well and fully represented, and the professions are by no means in the background among communities of the same size. The Calmar Manufacturing Company and the Henry Miller, Jr., Wagon and Plow Works are institutions whose product and reputation reach beyond the borders of the state. The object of this sketch, however, is not to advertise the things and institutions that to-day are, nor those who are in the active operation of them, but to preserve in outline and characteristics some of the things and people that are slipping away from present human contact and memory; and more especially of the men, and no less their life partners, who shared their names, their hardships and privations in the beginning of civilization in this one township and its towns this little square plot of ground in the counterpane of a great state. These are they who learned: The virtues which take root in poverty PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY 211 Sleep soundly in sweet peace, dead pioneers! |
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