Thief Defeated By Bullet

Image from American Firearms

THIEF DEFEATED BY BULLET THAT FELLS HIM IN HIS TRACKS

Onawa Merchant Shoots When Crook Orders Him To Throw Up His Hands.

Onawa, Ia., Aug. 13. — I.A. Blotcky, a local merchant, shot and killed a highwayman almost at the door of his home here at 10:30 o’clock Saturday evening. Mr. Blotcky had for some time made it a practice to carry Saturday’s cash receipts home with him in a sack, invariably holding a loaded .32 calibre revolver just under his coat in the other hand. At the time of the shooting he carried $1,200 in a bag.

Just as he was turning into his lawn, a man stepped out from behind a tree commanding Blotcky to throw up his hands. As he raised his hands, as if in compliance, Mr. Blotcky fired and the robber fell, the bullet having taken effect in the left eyeball and passed through his brain.

The unknown man died in half an hour. After the shooting, Blotcky informed Sheriff George Martin.

The would-be robber had been seen hanging around town for several days before the shooting. He had been with two companions and pretended to be seeking work in the harvest fields.

J.B. Richard and Gus Danielson, of the Sioux City detective force, have been here and procured pictures of the dead man in the hope of establishing his identity, no papers having been found in his pockets. Detective Richard found $50 in bills in a secret pocket.

Mr. Blotcky has been exonerated by a coroner’s jury. His father, Joseph Blotcky, of Sioux City, was here yesterday.

Bayard Advocate (Bayard, Iowa) Aug 15, 1912

Image from Wisconsin Historical Society

Young doctors working in the cause of science, now cut to bits all that is left mortal of the robber who was shot last week at Onawa when he attempted to hold up I.A. Blotcky, who carried $200. Society may be better off without him, as the papers say, but just the same, somewhere probably a mother is standing at the back gate watching the train’s arrival to bring home her wandering son.

Correctionville News (Correctionville, Iowa) Aug 22, 1912

Swat Him Now, Iowa!

**********

STARVE THE FLY.

The best method to prevent houseflies from breeding is to observe strict cleanliness in the homes and on the streets. This method was successfully carried out along the Panama canal in the campaign against malaria and yellow fever, which are conveyed from one person to another by mosquitoes.

Don’t give the deadly fly a chance!
Keep the house free of food for flies!
Starve him out!

**********

Smite Him Hip and Thigh.

The bugle call of Hygeia
Is sounding through the land,
Arousing all the people
To form a swatting band —

To swat the pesky fly at sight,
And swat him hip and thigh,
Till not a single buzzer
Is left to make a cry.

Because he carries death germs
From many, many ills
That poison food and people
And run up doctor’s bills.

The powers that be have said
“Exterminate the fly,”
And typhoid, with the other ills,
Will bid the world goodby.

**********

STUDY THIS FLY CATECHISM.

Practice It and You’ll Save Many a Life.

WHERE does the fly live? Where there is filth.

Is there anything too filthy for the fly to eat? No.

Does the fly like clean food too? Yes, and it appears to be his delight to wipe his feet on clean food.

Where is his favorite place of feeding? The manure heap and the garbage can.

Where does the fly go after leaving the manure pile and garbage can? Into the kitchen, dining room and bedroom.

Does the fly visit those sick with typhoid fever, consumption, smallpox and cholera infantum? He certainly does and may call on you next.

Is the fly dangerous? Yes; he spreads disease.

How does he spread disease? By carrying infection on his legs and wings and by “fly specks” after he has been feeding on infectious material.

What disease may the fly thus carry? He may convey typhoid fever, tuberculosis, cholera, dysentery, and “summer complaint.”

Did the fly ever kill any one? He killed more American soldiers in the Spanish-American war than the bullets of the Spaniards and was the direct cause of much of the typhoid fever in this country last year.

Where are the greatest number of cases of typhoid fever and summer complaint? Where there are the most flies.

Where are the most flies? Where there is most filth.

Is the presence of flies, therefore, an indication of nearby filth? It most certainly is, and that is disgraceful.

How may we successfully fight the fly? By destroying or removing his breeding place, the manure pile; removing all garbage and making vaults flyproof and by keeping our yard and alley clean, by screening the house and by the use of the wire swatter and sticky fly paper.

**********

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) May 23, 1917

Swat the Fly, Iowa

GET AFTER THE FLIES.

That fly on your plate didn’t wipe his feet when he came in.
The chances are his last walk was in the filth of the street or the garbage pail.
Pleasant, isn’t it?
Then why put up with flies?
Keep flies out of your home.
Don’t trade at stores that tolerate flies.
Don’t eat at restaurants in which there are flies

**********

Protect the Sleeping Baby.

WHEN your children are out of doors and awake the fly is not so dangerous. You will very rarely see a fly on the face of a child walking or playing, but if your baby sleeps outdoors that is the danger time. He must be carefully covered with mosquito netting to protect him from the poisoned kiss.

**********

Swat! Swat! Swat!

When you wake up in the morning
And a fly is buzzing near
And you know he’ll soon be horning
Into your defenseless ear,
Wait awhile until you spot him,
Till you know he’s off his guard;
Then lift up your hand and swat him —
Swat that buzzer good and hard!

When within your office busy
You try hard to do your work
And a fly makes you so dizzy
‘Neath your desk you long to lurk,
Pause until in range you’ve got him,
Steel your heart, though mercy pleads.
Take the office clock and swat him
Right where Mary wore the beads!

There is lots of satisfaction
In the course that I suggest,
With each victim nerved to action
To abate this insect pest.
When you see a fly just pot him,
Nail him as, of course, you should;
Grab a baseball bat and swat him —
Swat him while the swatting’s good!

**********

STARVE THE FLY.

STARVING the fly was added to the swatting of it in Paterson, N.J. The board of health set apart a day for householders to wrap up their food so that the housefly will fail of sustenance.

It was even asked that all refuse food be well wrapped before it is put in the garbage cans.

In addition, every one of the 125,000 residents who was able to swat was asked to kill 200 flies.

**********

THINK OF IT!

Flies and dirt double the amount of sickness among New York city’s babies. This statement, made public by the department of social welfare of the New York Association For Improving the Condition of the Poor, is based on a two years’ investigation in more than a thousand families.

Don’t let that fly get away!

Kill him now!

**********

REALIZE YOUR DANGER,

SWAT THE FLY!

If you were to walk into a room and then be told that in it there were 7,000,000 chances of catching a deadly disease, how long would you linger? The chances are 100 to 1 that you would get out as quickly as possible. According to scientists and doctors, a fly may carry as many as 7,000,000 germs on its feet. Typhoid and tuberculosis are the most common of these germs.

Kill the murderous insect.

**********

Kill the murderous fly!

When we dwell on the great war in Europe words fail us.

Yet statistics show that disease transmitted by the housefly kills more than armies!

Swat the fly!

Starve the fly!

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) May 23, 1917

Doughnuts for Doughboys

DOUGHNUTS FOR DOUGHBOYS

Of course you’re planning a party for the boy home on a furlough and you will want to serve the food he likes best. Put doughnuts at the top of the list for at canteens they are first choice.

Here are doughnuts that will top any your doughboy ever tasted. Light as a feather, moist, tender, deliciously spicy pumpkin doughnuts. Sugar a few for the folks with a sweet tooth and serve wedges of cheese for added goodness. Make them often for the family, too.

Try this new way of frying doughnuts. See how light and tender they are — how delicate tasting. There’s no unpleasant smell or smoke, and foods fried the

Spry way are so digestible even the children can eat them. Will they love that pumpkin flavor, too!

Evening Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania) Oct 23, 1942

The doughnut has been removed from the list of indigestibles by the Chicago school of domestic science. Those who have been forced to take to their beds after eating them in the past, will now be able to partake in safety.

The Daily Herald (Chicago, Illinois) Jul 1, 1910

New York Times – Chicago Tribune Leased Wire.

CHICAGO. May 7. — Any housewife who things she may have unexpected guests — say, about 600 of them and mostly male — will do well to cut out and paste in her cook book “Ma” Burdick’s tested recipe for doughnuts.

“Pa” and “Ma” Burdick, the doughnut king and queen of the Salvation Army, reached Chicago yesterday, after nearly two years of service overseas — two years of work for the American doughboys.

“What’s the most important thing in making doughnuts?” “Ma” was asked.

“Speed, she replied. Then she gave her recipe.

“It’s for six hundred,” she said, “but I guess you can divide it.”

Here it is:

Salvation Doughnuts.
Twelve quarts of flour.
Six quarts sugar.
Twenty-four tablespoonsful baking powder.
Three teaspoonsful salt.
Three quarts milk.
Fry in deep fat.

“The secret’s in the mixing,” said “Ma.”

“Ma” Burdick’s “shrapnel cake” was another favorite with the boys.

Here is the recipe:

Shrapnel Cake.
(Three pieces.)
Two large cups sugar.
One cup molasses.
Two cups milk.
One cup strong black coffee.
Three heaping teaspoonsful cinnamon.
One heaping teaspoonful cloves.
One teaspoonful salt.
One teaspoonful baking powder.
Two large cups raisins (the shrapnel).
Flour to make a stiff batter.

The famous flapjacks were made in the following manner:

Fifty Flapjacks

One quart flour.
Two heaping teaspoons baking powder.
One teaspoon salt.
Milk to make a soft batter. Beat until light.

San Antonio Evening News (San Antonio, Texas) May 7, 1919

Hot, tasty doughnuts and a cup of steaming, fresh coffee really hit the spot these damp, cold days in England .   .   . and especially for two Iowa doughboys who know the Red Cross Iowa clubmobile was made possible through contributions by residents of their own state.

Once a week the club-kitchen on wheels drops in at an aerial reconnaissance station with “doughnuts for doughboys.” When it does, Cpl. Clyde Olsen, left, and Pfc. Carl C. Larsen, right, of Forest City, Ia., are among the first to welcome it and its two comely attendants, Miss Leo Lindsley of Fallons, Neb., and Mrs. Georgette Hayes of Middletown, N.J.

Corporal Olsen, a radio operator with a Station Complement squadron, assisted his father on his farm near Missouri Valley, Ia., before he entered the army May 29, 1942. He is the husband of Lucille Craig Olsen, 1 11 Stutsman street, Council Bluffs, and a son of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Olson, RFD No. 2, Missouri Valley.

Council Bluffs Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, Iowa) Nov 17, 1943

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Sep 21, 1927

* * * * *

* * * * *

The Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) Oct 11, 1926

* * * * *

By the way, it’s National Doughnut Day.

Mrs. Sarah Inman Roberts, A Pioneer

OUR NONAGENARIANS
—–
Short Sketch of Adams County Citizens of Advanced Age.
—–
MRS. SARAH ROBERTS, A PIONEER
—–
A Resident of Adams County for Fifty Years, This Good Woman Has Seen Many Changes.
—–

Mrs. Sarah Roberts, whose picture we give below, was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, August 3, 1819, and is therefore a trifle under 90 years of age. She was the daughter of Pamela J. and Arnold Inman, and at the age of 12 years moved with her parents to Washington county, near the town of Marietta, on the Ohio river. Here she grew to womanhood, amid the privations of pioneers in a timber country. On September 20, 1839, she was married to Daniel Roberts, in Muskingham county, Ohio, where they resided until 1850, when they removed to Henry county, Illinois, locating on the prairie near where the town of Kewanee now stands.

1850 Census - Muskingham Co., Ohio

Here they resided for two years, and then returned to Ohio, remaining in Muskingham county until August, 1959, when in company with Messrs. Alfred and John White, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts started overland in covered wagons for Adams county, Iowa, arriving in Quincy the latter part of October. Mr. Roberts rented a log cabin of Zachariah Lawrence and moved into it for the winter. This cabin stood on the prairie north of Carbon, near where the Houck school house now stands, and was twelve by fourteen feet in size. The Roberts family, being acquainted with the Lawrences and the Registers, old settlers in this county who had preceded them from Ohio to Iowa, enjoyed the winter very much, notwithstanding the hardships of a new country. In the spring of 1860 the Roberts family moved to the Sprague farm, now owned by C.A. Foote, and here they had a log cabin with a fire place and a sod chimney to do cooking. Mrs. Roberts remembers that they went with one of their neighbors to Des Moines to secure a plow to till Iowa soil, Des Moines being about the nearest point where a plow might be secured in those days. In the spring of 1861 Mr. Roberts moved to Mt. Etna, at that time a thriving metropolis with three frame buildings and two cabins. In the same year, he purchased some Adams county soil of Morgan Warren, the purchase price being $5 per acre, and in part payment Mr. Roberts traded a land warrant issued soldiers of the Mexican war. There are many other interesting incidents that have occurred in the life of this good woman that would be very entertaining to our readers, if we but had space to tell of them.

1860 Census - Adams Co., Iowa

Of the Inman family, to which Mrs. Roberts belonged, there are now living beside the subject of this sketch, Mrs. Marguerite Thompson, of Corning, aged 83 years; Hamilton Inman, Bigelow, Kansas, aged 78; Felix R. Inman, Antler, North Dakota, aged 73. Mrs. Polly Carlow, of Gross, Nebraska, died only a short time ago and her remains were brought to this city for interment, as our readers will remember. Of the immediate family of Mrs. Roberts, two sons are living, W.W., of Gove county, Kansas, and L.D. Roberts, residing near Mt. Etna, with whom Grandma Roberts makes her home. Her husband died about 20 years ago.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) Apr 14, 1909

Oh, My! Eskimo Pie!

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin) Dec 31, 1921

Eskimo Pie Inventor Makes Fortune
BY ROY GIBBONS

Chicago, Feb. 13 — Christian K. Nelson came to Chicago from Omaha 15 months ago with 19 cents and an idea.

Today the 19 cents has grown to a steadily increasing fortune of six figures. It’ll be well over a million before Nelson pays his income tax.

What did it?

The idea!

Nelson’s idea was to cover a square of cold ice cream with a layer of hot chocolate, thus caking a confection with real ice cream inside.

He got that idea while he was managing his father’s ice cream plant out in Onawa, Ia. And he furthered it while he was studying chemistry at college.

When he was graduated he peddled the idea around from ice cream factory to ice cream factory. Everybody laughed at him.

“Cover cold ice cream with hot chocolate? Man; you’re crazy!” they’d say.

But Russell Stover, manager of an ice cream plant at Omaha, was different. He thought Nelson’s idea could be put over. And together Stover and Nelson did put it over.

That’s why you see a big yellow sign advertising “Eskimo Pie” in your confectionery store window.

For Nelson’s the inventor of Eskimo Pie.

Nelson’s not making it. His company, composed of himself, Stover and others, is selling licenses to firms in other cities to manufacture the confection.

Today there are more than 1,000,000 Eskimo pies eaten daily. And Nelson’s company gets 5 cents royalty on every dozen pies.

And Nelson’s busy with an adding machine trying to figure up his income.

“Don’t lose heart,” Nelson advises others. “I kept at my hunch and plugged — that’ why I succeeded.

“Just don’t give up. It seems to me that too many folks are only too anxious to tell the world they’re licked.”

Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, Michigan) Feb 13, 1922

Image from Emporia State University

STOVER KING OF ESKIMO PIE
“Eskimo Pie”, now figuratively and almost literally, in “everybody’s mouth,” promises to make a near-millionaire, if not a real one, out of a Johnson county boy. Russell Stover, the inventor of the chocolate and ice cream confection that bears that name, is a son of Mr. John R. Stover, a prominent Johnson county farmer, who lives one mile west of Indian Lookout, where the young candy man, who is heading the Russell Stover company of Chicago, was born.

Sure to Enrich Him

The “Eskimo pie” is destined to enrich the Iowa City and S.U.I. boy of other days, is indicated strongly by a letter Mr. Stover received from his son today. The inventor is traveling, far and near, putting in 18 hours a day, licensing manufacturers to produce his confection. He has more than 250 on the list now, and more than 40,000 retail stores are handling the article already. He predicts a sale of 2,000,000 a day, and the Stover company will get 5 cents a dozen royalty, he writes, on these. This spells $3,000,000 a year for the Iowa Citian and his associates.

To Entire World

Plans are making to ship to China, Japan, and all parts of Europe. Mr. Stover has been called to New York and New Haven, Conn., this week, to address conventions of manufacturers. His traveling secretary is General Leonard Wood’s presidential campaign secretary, Fugitt, who declares the “Eskimo” campaign is more exciting than the political fight.

Some big lawsuits may follow, as the company alleges imitators and infringers are busy violating the Stover copyrights and patents. Test suits will be instituted in the metropolises.

Some Interesting Figures

Some figures are of interest in connection with the Iowa City man’s business campaign. The company telephone bill — before breakfast — in a single day, is $160. The advertising bills are enormous. A contract for a double page in Saturday Evening Post, in February calls for $14,000.

Iowa City Press Citizen (Iowa City, Iowa) Jan 16, 1922

Inventor of Eskimo Pie Prefers His Old Job As School Teacher

CHICAGO — (Special) — Anybody’d think dipping ice cream into hot chocolate would melt the ice cream. Christian Kent Nelson discovered the way to do it, however, at just the right temperature. The result — eskimo pie.

Until he made his discovery Nelson was a poor but contented teacher at Onawa, Ia. Today money’s pouring in on him so fast that he’s scared. “I want to stay human,” he says.

He tried hard enough to market his idea before it “caught on.” Most people he approached were skeptical. Finally Russell Stover of Omaha went in with him. From that moment the golden tide began to rise. For Nelson, at any rate, it rose too high.

“Money! The more I see of it, the less I like it. I’d rather be with my books, or back on the job as teacher again,” he exclaims. He hasn’t even bought an automobile.

Perhaps wealth came a bit too fast — about a year, from a shoe-string to affluence is sudden enough to be disconcerting.

Nelson’s a graduate of Nevada University. He’s only 29. His father and mother are living and he has brothers and sisters. He’s unmarried.

When a reporter asked him, “Do you intend to take a wife?” “Maybe,” he answered.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) May 25, 1922

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin) Mar 2, 1922

Image from D-Lib Magazine Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation

The Modern Trend

How times do change,
Oh, me! Oh, my!
We ne’er hear now
Of Eskimo pie.
— Montgomery, Ala., Advertiser.

And customs too,
Have changed, my lan’!
Nobody ev —
Er shoots the can.
— Macon, Ga., Telegraph.

Ah, yes, ’tis true,
Only gran-pap
Knows the meaning of
The word, “Gid-dap!”

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Sep 10, 1925

Decatur Review (Decatur, Illinois) May 14, 1922

*****

A native Chinese might be amazed at the sight of chop suey as it is known in America, but probably no more than an Eskimo on seeing his first Eskimo pie.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Sep 26, 1929

Daily Review (Haywood, California) Sep 12, 1949

Image from the American History Archives Center – THE ESKIMO PIE CORPORATION RECORDS, 1921-1996

Getting Rich
[excerpt]

The more people you assist or entertain, the greater your income.

Often you comment along these lines: Einstein, a super-scientist of the sort that appears only once in centuries, makes less money than the inventor of some trifling thing like the Eskimo pie, ice cream cone or safety pin.

The answer to this is that Einstein serves only a small and limited number of customers — scientists — while the other inventors serve millions, each contributing his mite to the inventor.

In any scheme to get rich, don’t forget the importance of doing something that will serve a great multitude.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Mar 2, 1922

A highbrow is a person who wants his Eskimo pie a la mode.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Mar 16, 1922

Told Cop To “Get Out With His Eskimo Pie”; Aggie Wanted a “Fag”

NEW YORK, Aug. 17. — Aggie Kelley, aged 14, was advised to go back to her father and stay with him by Recorder Kane in Bayonne, N.J., today, when she was brought before him.

Policeman Bonlin found the girl yesterday sitting on a curbstone crying.

The lieutenant sent a policeman to buy ice cream for the little girl, mean while putting her in a room by herself. When he came back he was met at the door by Aggie, who was smoking a cigarette. She told him to get out “with that Eskimo pie.”

“If you want to do me a favor,” shed added, “you might bring me a small pack of cigarettes.”

She told the recorder she had a good home with her father on a canal boat and she wanted to go there as quickly as she could.

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) Aug 17, 1922

Image from The Public “I”

YE OLD TYME TOURNAMENT

The hoi-polloi
With shouts of joy
Doth group abut
In twos and bunch
and munch the festive Eskimo pie
And chew on other lightish lunches.

Cease your talk
For down the walk
Come all the buxom corn-fed maidens;
Hearken to their dissertation —
“I says to him — he says to me –”
The corn’s all right — so are the maidens
But Gawd forgive the combination.

With close shaved necks
And sunburned beaks
In phalanx come
The village shieks!

Who is the cent of this group
Whose checkered vest has spots of soup?
He hold the power of life and death!
Two-foot watch chain, eye of eagle
Look him o’er — the local Kleagle!

With Beech-nut filling
Up his jaw
Here comes the long are
Of the law
His uniform is slightly tight,
(‘Twas made for some less portly wight).
Constantly, at greatish rate,
The Law, he doth expectorate.
And every time he spits by chance
He breaks a city ordinance.

‘Tis after nine,
The crowd is gone,
All but the shieks
Who linger on
Within some lowly pea-pool den,
And dissipate and drink pink pop
‘Til oft’ as late as half-past ten.

The Vidette Messenger (Valparaiso, Indiana) Mar 1, 1929

Lewis W. Homan, an Early Iowa Pioneer

OUR NONAGENARIANS

Short Sketch of Adams County Citizens of Advanced Age.

LEWIS W. HOMAN, MT. ETNA.

One of the Early Pioneers in Iowa, an Ex-County Judge and an Exemplary Citizen.

Lewis W. Homan, the subject of this sketch, was born January 26, 1818, and is now 91 years old. His father and mother were citizens of Virginia at the time of their marriage, in 1816, but soon after moved into Kentucky. Mark Homan, father of Lewis W., was born in Virginia near the Potomac river, about 40 miles above the city of Washington, in the year 1789, the year that George Washington was first elected president. When Mark Homan was 13 years old he moved with his mother to what is now West Virginia, where he lived until he attained the age of 27 years, and where he met and married Miss Nancy Burson, in 1816. Soon after their marriage they moved across the Cumberland mountains into Kentucky, crossing the mountains on horseback. In 1818 their son, Lewis W., whose picture we this week present to our readers, was born, on the banks of Salt river, in Kentucky. When Lewis was about eight years old his grandmother, Elizabeth Homan, entered land in Putnam county, Indiana, which she deeded to her son Mark, and to which Lewis W. came with his father and mother in the fall of 1827, and where his father made his home until the time of his death in 1874, the mother dying in 1837. Here Lewis grew to manhood and in 1838 was married to Miss Temperance M. McClain.

Image from Legends of America

In 1843 with his wife and three children he moved to Jones county, Iowa, coming through from Indiana with an ox team and in the old fashioned prairie schooner. Jones county was then mostly unfenced, raw prairie, and its county seat was but a very small village. However, its people were open hearted and kind to all newcomers, and the family was soon among kind and sociable friends. They resided in Jones county until the year 1856, when they came to Adams county, where they again went through the experiences of making a home on the frontier of a new country. It was not long, however, until they were surrounded with friends and helpful neighbors, and the exemplary life of the old gentleman has retained the respect and esteem of all his acquaintances down through the years. Mr. Homan was married but once, his wife living with him to old age. At the time of her death, about eight years ago, they had been living together 63 years. On the occasion of their fifty-seventh wedding anniversary a large number of their relatives and friends met to assist in celebrating the event. Mr. and Mrs. Homan were the parents of 12 children and number among their progeny 51 grandchildren, most of whom are living, and 44 great grandchildren, a record that scarcely finds an equal in Adams county.

Lewis Homan and wife passed a few years in Corning, the rest of their lives they spent on the farm, where they raised their large family. Under the old law, Mr. Homan served a term as county judge of Adams county, and thus it will be seen that his friends and neighbors delighted to honor him with a high position in their midst. He and his brother Westley were the founders of the First Baptist church of Adams county, which was organized in 1858, and of which he is the only charter member. It stands as a splendid monument to his religious zeal and fidelity in days when the support of a church meant more than it does now, from a financial standpoint at least. After the organization of this church he was made superintendent of its Sunday school, a position he held for 17 years, and until old age forbade he was one of the deacons of the church. He and his wife early in life identified themselves with church and Sunday school work, also with the cause of temperance. In an early day, while still living in Jones county, they signed a pledge of total abstinence from intoxicants, and faithfully adhered to it all their lives. Mr. Homan is now living in the joy of a well spent life, and the hope of a glorious eternity. Time has been good to Mr. Homan, and left him the use of a sound mind, and some degree of health. He has a good appetite for food and enjoys the eating, but has not strength enough in his limbs to walk, and is unable to leave his room. He generally sleeps well and sits in his rocker most of the day. He is cheerful with the friends who call to see him, and greatly enjoys their visits.

Mark Homan, father of the subject of this article, was a soldier of the war of 1812, and Lewis W. had two sons in the military service of the United States in the war for the preservation of the union.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) apr 7, 1909

Rebecca Ann Dillon – Wife of a Forty-Niner

OUR NONAGENARIANS
______

Short Sketch of Adams County Citizens of Advanced Age.
______

MRS. REBECCA ANN DILLON
______

This Aged Lady Now Makes Her Home With Mrs. R.J. Bohanan in Corning, Iowa.
______

Mrs. Rebecca Ann Dillon, whose picture we present this week, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, August 26, 1815, and is therefore about 93 and a half years of age. Her maiden name was Pulley. She resided in the county of her nativity for several years and on February 11, 1836, was married to James Dillon.

In 1849, at the time of the gold excitement in California, her husband, in company with relatives and friends, went across the great plains to the golden state to seek his fortune. He was gone fifteen months and returned by water. Mr. Dillon was more fortunate than any of the rest of his company, and returned with more gold than they. However, during his absence all the children of the family, five in number, had scarlet fever, and the eldest daughter died. Mrs. Dillon did not inform her husband of her trials during this absence, and he knew nothing of the death of his daughter until his return home.

In the fall of the same year Mr. and Mrs. Dillon moved Grant county, Indiana, where they erected a house in the woods and cleared off the timber for a farm, a no small undertaking in those days, as the timber on the land in that vicinity was very heavy. On this farm they made their home and helped their children get a start in life. One son was born there. When not engaged with his duties on the farm, Mr. Dillon worked at the gunsmith trade. In the spring of 1872 he died, and Mrs. Dillon remained on the home place until 1874, when, in company with her two daughters and their families, she came to Adams county. Her three sons were already here, and she made her home with her children until the daughters returned to Indiana, when she accompanied them, making her home mostly with her daughter, Mrs. Susan Veach. The latter died about two years ago, since which time Grandma Dillon has depended upon her grandchildren for care.

Image from Bygone Places Along the Hoosier Line

Mrs. Dillon’s mental qualities are better than her physical strength, although she last fall made the trip from Hamlet, Indiana, to Corning unattended. Previous to the world’s fair in Chicago she made a visit to this city along, returning to her home alone in September of the same year. Even as late as last summer Mrs. Dillon visited with friends and relatives in Grant county, Indiana; but at present she has not the strength to walk alone, and is cared for by her grand-daughter, Mrs. R.J. Bohanan, of this city.

Mrs. Dillon has three brothers living, Jonathan Pulley, of Chariton, Iowa; Jackson and Samuel Pulley, both living near Marion, Grant county, Ind. Two sons and one daughter are living. They are Mrs. Mollie Bowman, at the soldiers’ home in Lafayette, Indiana; Martin Dillon of Grant county, Indiana, and J.W. Dillon of Seattle, Washington state.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) Mar 10, 1909

DIED.

[Excerpt: some of the bio was repeated in the obituary]

Mrs. Rebecca Ann Dillon died at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. J.A. Bohanan, in Corning, on Saturday, October 7, 1911. Her death was due to old age, she being aged 96 years, 1 month and 11 days.
….
To Mr. and Mrs. Dillon six children were born, three sons and three daughter. Mrs. Mollie Bowman and W.M. Dillon, both of Gas City, Ind., and J.W. Dillon, of Seattle, Wash., survive their parents, while Elizabeth Dillon, S.B. Dillon and Mrs. Susan Veach, preceded the parents in death.
….

After the death of her youngest daughter Mrs. Dillon made her home with her granddaughters, spending some time with Mrs. Jennie Barker and Mrs. Ida Roose, of Hamlet, Indiana, and nearly three years with Mrs. Emma Bohanan in our city. Beside the children Mrs. Dillon is survived by one brother, Jonathan Pulley, of Chariton, Iowa, and a number of other relatives. She has had thirty-five grandchildren, most of whom are living; several great grandchldren and one great great grandson.

Mrs. Dillon was  devoted Christian, joining the church at the age of 14 years. She desired that she might pass from from this life as a candle going out and her wish was granted. The funeral services were held in the Christian church Monday afternoon, at 1:30 o’clock, conducted by Rev. J.C. Hanna, and the body was laid to rest in the First Baptist church cemetery, eight miles north of Corning. The relatives from out of town Mrs. Addie Williams and two children, of Greenfield; J.F. Dillon and Miss Ruth, of Carl, and other relatives met the funeral party at the cemetery.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) Oct 11, 1911

End of Icaria – Individualism Outshines Communism

NEW ICARIA ENDED

Judge Towner Signs the Decree Which Closes Its History.

END OF ICARIAN SYSTEM

The Adams County Community the Last of the Icarian Settlements — Some Interesting History as to Origin of the Colony.

The most long-lived and undoubtedly the most nearly successful of all the experiments ever made in the western hemisphere with pure communism, came to an end when, late Saturday afternoon, Judge H. M. Towner, in the district court, entered an order discharging the receiver of the New Icarian community, and formally declared the community and its affairs ended.

Etienne Cabet, scholar, historian, sociologist and philanthropist; who two generations ago was stirring all France with his socialistic and communistic writings, and who contributed much toward inciting the revolution of 1818, of which he was afterwards the historian; Etienne Cabet, contemporary and co worker of Proudhon in behalf of the poor and oppressed of France; agitator, essayist, historian, scientist, and finally, exile from his native country — was founder of the community which after an existence of almost half a century came to an end Saturday. In its palmy days, twenty years ago, American students of sociology used to come many of hundreds of miles to study the workings of what was said to be the most successful communistic community in the world.

Cabet tried to found his first experimental colony in France, but the government of Louis Phillipe was bitterly opposed to such experiments and its opposition forced the Icarians, as the adherents of the new communistic doctrines were called, to go to the new world. The movement had become almost a national one in France; Cabet’s Icaria, and Proudhon‘s “Bank of the People,” had set all France by the ears, and the established order of things was in serious danger of being overturned. Driven from the own country for their first experiment in communism, the Icarians went first to Texas, where they were offered as area as large as a good sized French department, for their experiment. Their emissaries after looking over the country decided against it, and went to New Orleans. Here they were joined by others and at last, when the Mormons left their seat at Nauvoo, Ill., the Icarians, who had brought considerable money, bought the old Mormon holdings in Illinois, and secured from the legislature of Illinois a charter granting them certain special privileges and immunities. About 2,000 French enthusiasts joined them here, Cabet at their head. He was practically dictator to the community; for years no question was raised as to his absolute authority in all things relating to the conduct of the community, and so long as he was left in charge all went well. The community grew and prospered and there was peace and plenty.

But the country round about settled up by people who saw no charm in the communistic idea; shrewd Yankees, who, instead of believing that the community ought to own everything, considered themselves called to secure individual control of the largest possible part of the community, pressed about the little settlement of communists. The new generation of Icarians was, brought up constantly confronted by the striking contrasts between their own simple, plain, frugal living and the comparative luxury and independence of the better classes of people around them. Of course they always make the comparison with the more well-to do of their neighbors; human nature could not have been expected to be more discriminating; and their conclusions were too often to the disadvantage of their own style of living. Dissensions arose, Cabet had given up his dictatorial powers, and granted a charter under which the community by ballot chose annually a sort of directorate. After experience with this plan he found it a failure; individualism was everywhere creeping in. He demanded that the elected directorate be abolished, and that he be vested with power to appoint directors. But he was defeated; the rising tide of individualistic ideas beat ever harder and more fiercely upon the little islet of communism; every year the instinct of human selfishness more and more overcame the sentiment of devotion to pure principle that had characterized the patriarchs of Icarianism. At last a schism came; Cabet and his minority of followers withdrew and established another colony at Sheltenham, Mo., a few miles from St. Louis. It lasted only a few years and dissolved.

Two or three years before this schism, Cabet, realizing that his social order could never be maintained in the midst of a great community inspired only by what he considered the selfishness of individualism, had concluded that he must transplant his communistic seed to some new region far beyond the frontiers of civilization; and fondly believing that civilization would not penetrate far beyond the Mississippi for generations to come, he sent agents out to western Iowa to seek a location. They came to Adams county and found the ideal tract of 4,000 acres of rich land, in a county almost utterly uninhabited. Cabet came out, examined the prospect, and ordered the land preempted and purchased. This was in 1853. The first case on the court docket of Adams county is a record of certain matters concerning the Icarian community, made in 1853. The new community grew fast, and prospered; after the division of the Nauvoo community it grew still more rapidly. But the troubles of the Nauvoo society involved the Iowa branch; a mortgage was given on the entire 4,000 acres in Adams county, to William Shepherd of St. Louis. In time this was foreclosed. Shepherd was friendly to the colonists, and suffered them to occupy his lands; and in 1859 an arrangement was made whereby the community bought back 2,000 acres from him. Before doing this, there had been a strong movement in favor of removal to California. The wise old men of the colony viewed with despair the advance of American civilization, with its distracting individualistic notions, and foresaw that the experience of Nauvoo would be repeated. They wanted to move to the heart of the unknown west, as the Mormons had done; but already the younger element was in control. By a majority of one vote in the great council of the colony the proposition to remove to California was rejected. The community enjoyed several years of comparative prosperity and growth after this decision. The people were devoted to agriculture. They introduced the French methods of grape culture, and the wonderful success in grape growing in southwest Iowa to this day is traced in large part to their influence. They lived in true communistic style. Like the Spartans of old, they dined from a common table; the community was charged with the general responsibility for education and raising of children; all property was owned by the community and partitioned in accordance with the requirements of the individuals, the community always reserving a store for the common safety. At this period of its history the colony seemed destined to success; indeed, it may be fairly said that it was a success; if not in a material way, at least in the respect of promoting the happiness of its people, safeguarding them against poverty, assuring the young fair education, and removing much of the temptation to selfishness and injustice. “Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you.” the golden rule was the fundamental of Etienne Cabet’s theory of life, and it was applied so far as possible in the rule of the community.

But once more the delicate plant that must draw its nourishment from such intangible sources as a belief in the abstraction of human equality,; or a deep seated conviction that one’s neighbor is as good as one’s self; found its roots crowded and starved in the soil of selfishness and ambition and individualism. The younger Icarians looked around them, and saw that while they had but an indefinite and indivisible stake in their community, there were men among their neighbors who, with seemingly less work and toil and effort than they were required to put forth, in a few years came to own lands as extensive as all the estate of Icaria. They longed for the freedom of competition and individual effort and individual merit. Each was jealous of the other, for each felt that he was contributing a larger share of labor than was compensated by the proportion of the whole product which came to him. And so, in 1886, there was another division; the lands were divided and the community partitioned off. After this there was the Old Icarian community and the New Icarian community. The members of the New community had desired to admit all who might apply, to the advantages of membership in the community. Failing to carry their point, they brought action at law to annul the charter which the legislature had granted the community. In this they succeeded; their success led to the schism. The New community did not incorporate, for the experience with charters had not been satisfactory. After a year or two the Old community disbanded and divided its property among its surviving members. The New Icaria flourished a number of years yet, but it could not withstand the disintegrating influences from without. Troubles arose, disagreements that could not be settled. The younger and more capable members withdrew, and at last, on February 16, 1895, application was made for the appointment of a receiver, Eugene F. Bettannier was named, and to him was turned over about 1,000 acres of land and other property aggregating about $36,000 in value. Since that time he has disposed of the property, divided the proceeds in accordance with orders of the court, and finally, a month ago, filed his statement showing the disposition of everything. Mr. Bettannier was himself a member of the community. Still a comparatively young man, he remembers seeing Etienne Cabet and still regards him with a sentiment of reverence and affection. “It was not a failure,” declares Mr. Bettannier; “it is right in principle, and it will one day be recognized as the only right social order.”

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) Oct 27, 1898

Image from the French Icarian Colony Foundation website

THE LAST OF ICARIA.

On another page will be found a brief historical sketch of the famed Icarian community of Adams county, which, after an existence of almost half a century, had finally had its affairs wound up by the courts. Last Saturday Judge Towner issued an order for the discharge of Receiver Bettannier, and the organization of the communistic society as no more. Probably the Icarian community has attracted more attention in this part of Iowa than any other one thing. Students have come from distant parts of the world to see the communistic idea in practical application. They have reached widely divergent conclusions as to its practicality, but the end seems to justify the conclusion that communism cannot compete with individualism. The experience of the communists proved that individual effort and ambition were diminished under their system; everybody’s business was nobody’s business, and there was too much disposition to rely on the community as a whole for the discharge of responsibilities that under a different order would have been duties of the individual. So long as the communistic society could be isolated from individualistic society it flourished and attained a reasonable measure of success; but surrounded by and in competition with vigorous, aggressive, pushing devotees of individualism, it lacked the element of personal enthusiasm without which success was impossible.

While the lesson seems to teach the impracticality of the communistic tenure of property, yet it must be remembered that a little company of at most a few hundreds souls, devoted to the single occupation of agriculture, without diversity of interests and produced means, and surrounded on every side by the institutions of an older, established, and organized society entirely different in its scheme, could not but make a poor showing. Let us assume that the world was organized on a communistic basis, and that a little company of individualists should make the effort to establish themselves and their peculiar notions in the midst of the older society — would not the result be the same?

Despite all insistence to the contrary, the thought of the world trends today toward communistic things. The trust, by which competing concerns in a given line seek to eliminate competition; the great corporate organization, by which the available capital of the many is gathered into great amounts for the purposes of handling great enterprises; the tendency toward public control of natural monopolies — all these things obviously lead toward the socialistic consummation. glasgow, owning its own water works, gas works, street railways, public baths, public lodging houses, public laundries, public eating establishments and scores of like institutions, conducted for the benefit of the public and not for the profit; is the most striking example of the communistic tendency of the day. In America the movement toward municipal ownership of public utilities; the universally accepted principle of society’s right to control the transportation facilities, fix their rates, and regulate their methods of operation; the public control of the mails, and many other fixed theories of society, are evidences of the same communistic tendency. True, all this is a long way from the communism of Bellamy or Cabet; it may be sneered at and called “anarchy,” or “socialism,” or “nonsense,” by the unthinking; but the fact remains that the ever sharper competition, the ever decreasing share of product which is allotted to the hand and brain that actually earn the living of society — all these things are surely prodding society in the direction of a reversal of the fixed order of things. It may never reach us; but none the less, society is now moving in that direction.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) Oct 27, 1898

Lake Park News (Lake Park, Iowa) Jan 31, 1957

MANY UNIQUE IOWA COMMUNITIES

Touches of romance have been given to the history of Iowa by the story of various little groups of idealists who from time to time found asylum within the borders of the State. Especially is this true of the people called the Icarians, who in the early fifties established a colony near Corning in Adams County. These people believed in and practiced communism — all property was held in common — and they were inspired by the ideal of restoring the principles of primitive Christianity. Persecuted in France, under the direction of their leader, Etienne Cabet they crossed the sea and settled in the wilds of Texas. But being an industrial people they found it too difficult to maintain existence so far from civilization, and so they journeyed up the Mississippi and took up the land and quarters at Nauvoo which had recently been deserted by the Mormons. Then about 1853 the colony in Iowas was established, and still later California became the home of the rapidly dwindling numbers of those who still held to the ideals of the founders.

In the April number of “The Iowa Journal of History and Politics” published by the State Historical Society, there is a translation of a history of the Icarian Community, written by Cabet himself about 1855.

The basic principles of the Community, according to the founder were “Brotherhood, Equality, Solidarity, the suppression of poverty and individual property, in a word Communism.”

The Iowa City Citizen (Iowa City, Iowa) May 2, 1917

Janesville Morning Gazette (Janesville, Wisconsin) Mar 17, 1857

Two and a half miles east of Corning, Iowa, is the Icarian community, with A.A. Marchand, an intelligent Frenchman, at its head. In this community are 75 person, living in 20 or 25 houses, and using a common dining hall 24×60 feet. The community own about 2,000 acres of land, with 600 acres under improvement. A fair share is good timberland. A steam grist mill and saw mill are on their lands, together with several barns.

The Perry Chief (Perry, Iowa) Jul 17, 1875

Will Divide the Property.

Corning. Feb 23. — Members of the Icarian Community founded in France before the revolution, coming to this country and living at various points in the south and at Nauvoo, Ill., finally settling here in 1856, have agreed to a division of the property and the dissolution of the society. The interests of the heirs and other legal obstacles have rendered it advisable to appoint a receiver to put the matter in the hands of the court.

The Perry Daily Chief (Perry, Iowa) Feb 24, 1895

DEATH OF A.A. MARCHAND.

Former President of the Icarian Community Passes Away in Georgia.

In Columbus, Ga., May 4, A.A. Marchand, one of the founders of the new extinct Icarian Community, was found dead in his bed, at the home of his daughter Mrs. William Ross, with whom he had lived since leaving Corning three years ago. the supposition is he died of heart disease, as he had not been sick and was apparently in fair health. Mr. Marchand had led an eventful life and died at the ripe age of 81 years. He was born in Rene, Bretagne, France.

In 1818 he became an enthusiastic follower of Etienne Cabet, the communist, who led a colony of some 5000 French to Texas where they purchased a tract in the Red river country. Misfortunes and disease overtook them and one half the colony died of yellow fever. A large number drifted back to France. A smaller number, Mr. Marchand among them, journeyed to Nauvoo, Ill., where they purchased the old mormon town site and farming lands, then being abandoned by the mormons in their exodus to Salt Lake. This colony flourished a few years, then succumbed. More than 100 of the colonists journeyed to Adams county where they purchased 20,000 acres of land about 1854. The colony thrived for many years. Then came dark days and disruption, the formation of a new colony which lived until 1895 when it was dissolved by petition to the court and a receiver appointed. The mother colony had expired several years before. Mr. Marchand was several years president of the colony. He was a man of rare refinement and education, and taught the Icarian children for many years.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) May 12, 1898

Icarian Fail

Image from the Old Picture website

The failure of the Icarian community at Corning, in this state, only goes to show that it is powerful hard to invent a clevis with which a dozen families can pull evenly on one plow.

Burlington Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) Sep 12, 1878