Fort Dodge, Iowa

“ Hoyt Sherman and E. W. Lucas of Des Moines bought the first lots sold in Fort Dodge in March, 1855. John F. Duncombe opened the first law office in April and Dr. S. B. Olney was the first physician. The first hotel was opened in 1854 by W. R. Miller in one of the barracks. In July, 1856, A. S. White established the first newspaper in northwestern Iowa, at Fort Dodge. It was a weekly Democratic journal named the Fort Dodge Sentinel. The first railroad built into the
GYPSUM LEDGES, NEAR PORT DODGE
county was the Iowa Falls and Sioux City which reached Fort Dodge in May, 1869. ”

“ He was the eldest son and for many years after the death of his father devoted himself to supporting and educating the younger children. In 1849 he came to Iowa, stopping at Muscatine. In 1850 he joined the expedition sent to establish Fort Dodge on the upper Des Moines River. He was sutler of the post until it was abandoned by the troops when he purchased the ground for a company of which he with Bernhart Henn and others were members. They laid out the town of Fort Dodge and secured the establishment of a United States Land Office there. ”

“ THE L. E. ARMSTRONG HOME
This buff brick home at 775 Crest Avenue was built in 1919 by the late L. E. Armstrong, business and industrial leader of Fort Dodge. It was purchased in 1941 by K. S. Fantle and in 1954 by its present occupant, C. M. Bodensteiner, president of Fort Dodge By-Products.
The house is 100 feet long, with a red tile roof. There is an old-fashioned “tea house” on the property and a two-story garage with living quarters on the second floor.
The home’s first floor has living room, dining room, kitchen, butler’s pantry, den, four bedrooms and two full and two half baths. ”

“ They now realized that the Indians had probably exterminated the entire settlement, and hastened back to Fort Dodge, reaching there on the 22d.
The terrible news aroused the people in every direction. Prompt steps were taken to send a relief expedition at once to the lakes. Major William Williams issued a call for volunteers, and in three days one hundred men were enlisted. ”

“ Other downstairs rooms are sunporch, dining room, family room, kitchen and half bath. The second floor has five bedrooms and two baths.
Brady was born in 1893 on a farm northwest of Fort Dodge and moved to the city with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Brady, when five years old. The father bought and sold draft horses for eastern markets. When a Fort Dodge man was unable to pay for horses used in a dray 111 line they were repossessed and Brady’s father put the son into the draying business. ”

“ Mr. Haugen died in 1947 at age 80. Mrs. Haugen died Dec. 23, 1974. Had she lived until Feb. 3, 1975, she would have been 103 years old.
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CITY OF FORT DODGE, IOWA
High-resolution Version
119 INDEX A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A ABEL, John H. 33 ACHER, Dr. A. E. 105 AMOND, John W. 34 ARMSTRONG, E. F. 87 ARMSTRONG, L. E. 97 AULT, Van J. 43 B BENNETT, S. J. (Cap) 9 BLACK, J. B. 26 BOWEN, Dr. W. W. 18 BRADY, John J., Sr. 110 BREEN, E. J. 8 BRENNAN, John J. 30 BROWN, Charles A. 101 BROWN, Jacob, Sr. 54 BURNQUIST, B. B. 100 BUTLER, Patrick 25 C CARTER, Charles. ”

“ Howe, Parmenter and Wheelock joined the expedition at Fort Dodge; J. M. Thatcher, at the Irish colony, Morris Markham, John Bradshaw and Jareb Palmer turned back with it, after conducting the Springfield refugees to safety. A hard crust on the snow rendered the march slow and difficult, as it was not sufficiently hard to bear the weight of a man. At the close of the second day the party camped at Dakota, in Humboldt County, but eighteen miles from Fort Dodge. From this place onward the obstructions, hardships and sufferings increased. ”

“ Kirchner was born in Germany and at the age of 2 came with his parents to the United States. They settled first in Bern Township, N. Y. and after several years moved to Iowa and settled in the Peterson area. When gold was found in Colorado Kirchner joined the rush there, found some gold and returned home.
Before moving to Fort Dodge in 1866 Kirchner bought and sold thousands of acres of land in Clay County. On arrival here he built a saw mill, sash and door factory at First Avenue South and Twelfth Street. ”

“ Kersten, a widely-known surgeon, came to Fort Dodge in 1916 and practiced here until 1957 with the exception of two years he was in service during World War I with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. ”

“ Major Woods and men [Pg 281] were detailed by Orders No. 22, 6th Military District, St. Louis, Missouri, July 14, 1850. Major Woods and men arrived on the site August 23, 1850. See Fort Dodge, Iowa, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series) , Vol. IV, pp. 534, 535; Jacob Van der Zee’s Forts in the Iowa Country in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, pp. 197-199.
[34] Fort Dodge, Iowa, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series) , Vol. IV, p. 535.
[35] Flickinger’s Pioneer History of Pocahontas County, Iowa, p. 27; Fulton’s Red Men of Iowa, p. 288. ”

“ THE YWCA HOME
The YWCA home
327 No. Ninth Street
The two-story frame house at the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue North and Ninth Street (pictured above) was the first permanent home of the Fort Dodge YWCA.
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Organized in 1909, the YWCA had its original quarters in a small building at First Avenue North and Seventh Street where the Flower Mission Club for Girls was located. The club was started in 1908 by Dr. Sara Kime and Mrs. J. J. Ryan to extend a welcome to girls coming to the community. The building was the birthplace of the YWCA as it was organized in the Flower Mission rooms. ”

“ These events made necessary a change in the plans of the troops. Company E of the Sixth Infantry remained at their camp on the Iowa River for some time, but upon the last day of July set out under the command of Major Woods for a site on the Des Moines River which had been chosen by the War Department as the location of a new military post. On August 23, 1850, the troops arrived at the designated place and began the erection of a fort which they named Fort Clarke in honor of Colonel Clarke [045] the commanding officer of the Sixth Infantry. The name, however, was soon changed to Fort Dodge. ”

“ Fort Dodge mayor John F. Ford, who served from 1911 to 1919, resided in this Fifth Avenue North home for many years with his wife and five children. Ford won election as mayor when the city’s form of government was changed from the ward system to the present commission system.
The first City Council under the commission form included Mayor Ford, Commissioner Frank W. Collins and Commissioner C. H. (Cad) Smith. At that time Collins was in charge of the department of accounts, finances, public properties and parks. Smith headed the department of public safety, streets and public improvements. ”

“ The Des Moines Valley Railroad was completed from Keokuk to Des Moines, a distance of one hundred and sixty-two miles. Its gross earnings for the year were $710,240. Its entire land grant was estimated at 464,023 acres, of which 100,000 acres were reserved to secure it’s building into Fort Dodge. ”

“ After a desperate struggle amid huge snow drifts and blinding storms, Luce and his three companions reached the Gardner cabin on the evening of March 6. On the second day after their arrival the weather had greatly moderated, and Mr. Gardner determined to go to Fort Dodge for provisions. As the family sat down to an early breakfast, the cabin door was opened and fourteen fierce-looking Sioux Indians walked in, led by Ink-pa-du-tah. The Indians at first professed friendship until they had eaten all of the food in the house, when they undertook to seize the guns and ammunition. ”

“ At the close of the war he graduated from the Albany, New York, Law School, was admitted to the bar in 1867 and became a resident of Fort Dodge where he began the practice of his profession. He soon attained high rank as a lawyer and became one of the most eminent advocates in northwestern Iowa. ”

“ The North West published at Fort Dodge, now conducted a quiet but thorough investigation, tracing the movements of the block of gypsum, quarried in 1868 by George Hull, to Boone, then the nearest railroad station, from there to Chicago where it was carved into the famous statue, thence to Union, an obscure station near Binghamton, New York, from whence it was conveyed by wagon to the vicinity of Cardiff where all trace of it disappeared. The chain of evidence thus far was complete. A pamphlet was issued exposing the fraud and copies sent to Syracuse where the “Giant” was then on exhibition. ”

“ Newspaper reporters were sent to Fort Dodge who followed the story of the pamphlet step to step from the quarry on Gypsum Creek to the artist who carved it into the statue, from there to Union, New York, and to Newell’s farm where it was buried.
The controversy which arose over the remarkable “Giant” was not by any means confined to the owners, the newspapers of the day and people who had traveled hundreds of miles to view the “petrified man” ”

“ He was postmaster of Fort Dodge for several years. The last years of his life were given to the care of his fine farm. He died on the 29th of May, 1898. At his funeral were assembled many of the prominent men of the State, including the Governor. No man ever served the public more faithfully, or brought to the performance of his official duties a more conscientious regard for the general welfare of the people than Governor C. C. Carpenter. ”

“ The last contest over the title was the case of the Iowa Homestead Company claiming the title under the railroad grant of 1856. It was the case of the Iowa Homestead vs. The Des Moines & Fort Dodge Railroad Company, reported in 17 Wallace, 84. Mr. Gue, in his history of Iowa, makes a special point as to the hardship visited on one of the settlers by the name of Crilley. I was attorney for Mr. Burrows in that case. Mr. Crilley first attempted to locate a warrant upon a tract of land near Fort Dodge prior to the decision of the supreme court of the United States in the Striker case. ”

“ Although for many years residing in New York to superintend his multitude of great business enterprises, General Dodge has retained his loyalty to his Iowa home and never ceased to keep intimate relations with his Iowa friends of pioneer years. He has been president of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, and vice-president of the Grant Monument Association of New York. ”

“ Robert 17 F FESSLER, David 14 FORD, John F. 22 FINDLAY, C. V. 78 G GADD, C. W. 76 GILLMAN, George W. 20 GOLDSWORTHY, John 72 GRIFFITH, Frank W. 24 H HAIRE, Jack 94 HAIRE, John 16 HAUGEN, Carl C. 114 HAVILAND, A. J. 90 HAWLEY, A. W. 61 HEALY, M. F. 10 HEALY, Robert 31 HELSELL, F. H. 63 HORN, Paul 67 J JACKMAN, A. S. (Electrical) 37 JOHNSON, E. H. 59 JOSELYN, Ed S. 91 JOYCE, Matthew W. 113 K KELLEHER, Dennis M. 35 KEMPLEY, James L. 108 KENYON, Charlotte 84 KERSTEN, Dr. E. M. 95 KIME, Dr. ”

“ In the campaigns which followed General Grant recognized General Dodge as one of his ablest officers. He said of the Iowa commander: “Besides being a most capable soldier General Dodge was an experienced railroad builder. At one time he constructed more than one hundred miles of railroad and built one hundred eighty-two bridges, many of them over wide chasms.” He was with Sherman's army in the march to the sea and was promoted to Major-General for gallant services. In November, 1864, General Dodge was placed in command of the Department of Missouri by order of General Grant. ”

“ WILLIAM W. DODGE, son of Senator Augustus C. Dodge, was born in Burlington, Iowa, April 25, 1854. He pursued his education in Notre Dame University, taking a scientific course and graduating in 1874, then entering the State University he graduated from the Law Department in 1870, and began practice in his native city. Mr. Dodge is an earnest Democrat, inheriting a taste for politics. ”

“ I sometime since left the place of my nativity in Connecticut, and, in the year 1770, settled in Sandusky, an Indian village, about half way between Pittsburgh and Detroit, where I carried on a very beneficial trade with the natives, until the unhappy dispute between Great-Britain and America reached those pathless wilds, and roused to war Savages no ways interested in it.
In July, 1775, Capt. James Woods called at my house in his way to the different indian towns, where he was going to invite them, in the name of the Congress, to a treaty to be held at Fort-Pitt. the ensuing fall ”

“ Henry Dodge was appointed governor of the new Territory of Wisconsin in 1836, Iowa at that time being a part of Wisconsin. With the exception of a few settlements of white people along Lake Michigan and in the mining region around Dubuque there were few, if any, white settlers. Governor Dodge's work was largely with the Indians, in making contracts and ceding lands to the government. Settlers were coming in constantly and a demand for a survey of the lands was made from time to time. ”

“ Louis. We who knew Sheridan's ability, and the necessities of our Army, did all we could to hold him with us. He left us just before the Battle of Pea Ridge, and our Army saw a great difference after he was gone. He used to say to me, "Dodge, if I could get into the line I believe I could do something;" and his ambition was to get as high a rank as I then had and as large a command—a Colonel commanding a Brigade. In his memoirs he pays the Fourth Iowa a great compliment, and says they will have a warm place in his heart during his life. ”

“ Immediately surrounding Fort Dodge is a rich farming country. To the E. of the city lies a gypsum bed, extending over an area of about 50 sq. m., and considered to be the most valuable in the United States; to the S. coal abounds; there are also limestone quarries and deposits of clay in the vicinity—the clay being, for the most part, obtained by mining. Fort Dodge is a market for the products of the surrounding country, and is a shipping centre of considerable importance. ”