Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Adams County Makes the News - Council Leader #19

The Council Leader
Published Every Thursday by the Council Publishing Company
Fred Mullin, Editor

LOCAL ITEMS, 1914

No Trespassing signs for 5 cents each at the Leader’s stall.

Big Horse Sale
Largest Horse Sale ever held in this part of the country at Hancock and Koontz livery barn in Council on Tuesday November 10, 1914.

Our price is your price.  Everything must be sold. We are quitting the horse business.

Sixty Head of Horses: 8 head of broke mares, 1 with colt by side, 3 to 5 years old, weight from 1150 to 1450.  16 head of unbroken mares, 10 with colts by side, 3 to 9 years old, weight from 1050 to 1250.  4 yearling mules, good ones.

Furnish me with an Abstract of Title to your property and I will do the rest in 4 days time. 
See me first, last, and all the time.  D. W. Crouter, the money loaner, Cambridge, Idaho.

Soren Hanson returned last week from taking a car of hogs to Portland for Fred Cool.

Mrs. C.A. Martin on last Tuesday purchased Rev. Stover’s team of fine driving mares.   These are registered animals, young, and among the best in the county. 

The new dotted-swiss half curtains at the windows of the primary room at the school add very much to its appearance.  The parents of the children in this room made the improvement possible.

October 5, 1911
DISCHARGE OF FIREARMS 

Several complaints have been made recently concerning the discharge of firearms within the city limits.  We take it that the parties who so ignore the safety of residents of the town know that it is against the law to discharge firearms within the corporation limits.  A due respect for the safety of fellow citizens is one of the elements of good citizenship.

April 18, 1912
NEW JAIL BEING BUILT 
Sid Geddes secured the contract for building the new jail, to be used jointly by the county and the town.  The new building is just south of the old jail and is being furnished with a modern steel cage recently purchased by the county and which to all appearances looks as though it would be as hard to get away from as death or the assessor.

The wild and woolly west is not what it used to be—the day of the “bad man” has passed—civilization reigns supreme and there is little business for a jail; but in case such a place is needed, it should be a structure that will hold the prisoner, and Adams County now has it.

January 31, 1913
WOW
A bomb exploded in the Meadows Valley this week!  Prosecuting Attorney Dillon and Sheriff Weaver returned yesterday morning from the Meadows Valley and report five men pinched, charged with contributing to the illegal trafficking in intoxicating liquors.  Those brought before Justice A. B. Lucas by the prosecutor were Veterinary Wm. Pogue and Druggist Bohanon of old town, and Drs. T.  E.  Martin and L. A. Harris and Druggist Webb of new town.  All defendants waived preliminary examination.

March 14, 1913
SHOT TO DEATH
“Word reached this office Friday morning that the Wayno Brothers of McCall shot to death Wm. Caldwell at his homestead on the South Fork of the Salmon, and about 30 miles from McCall in Idaho County.  It seems that the Wayno boys were trapping on Caldwell’s land and Caldwell remonstrated with them, he having a gun in his hand and standing in his doorway.  When the Wayno boys gave themselves up at McCall, it is said, they said they shot him three times, and that he fell back on the stove, it probably cremating him and burning the building, a fire being in the stove at the time.  They, it is said, did not wait to find out what the results of the fire was, but hurried to McCall to give themselves up.”          

Meadows Eagle

Bill Caldwell was a familiar figure in Long Valley country and had many acquaintances in this valley.  He was in town here a few days last fall.  He was a big, young, uncouth, whole-souled, bachelor mountaineer who would do anything for a man that treated him right.  He had a good ranch on the South Fork, where he raised stock and trapped and hunted.  There is evidently a mystery surrounds the killing.  The Wayno story doesn’t listen good to us.  Looks more like cold-blooded murder.   

March 14, 1913
Marble Howard, a girl who had been about town for some time, on last Friday was committed in probate court to the state industrial school at St. Anthony.  Mrs. Frank Weaver left Sunday morning with the girl to deliver her to the school.

March 17, 1914
STUNG
That’s what E.S. Clapp, L.J. Rainwater and Sam Criss thought Wednesday after an unknown woman had cashed checks with them and got away with the money, about $36.  Later it developed that the woman was a Hornet Creek schoolboy—Harry Shearer—in very poorly arranged female attire.

Pursuit was immediately started and the boy was found at his home.  He broke down and confessed, was brought to town, sentenced and turned loose under suspended sentence after he had reimbursed his victims.  The fact came out that the boy had been reading a blood and thunder novel and had brooded over it until his daring was raised to the point of action and his downfall was the result.

There are many things understood around here that made the boy’s error deplorable and all were willing to be lenient with him.  Upon advice of friends he is going back to school, to bravely live down his past, and show the other boys the error of his way and the futility of attempting such a rash act at this day and age.

You are on the right track now, Harry, and have a future before you by sticking to your manly resolution.  Do not under any circumstances betray the confidence your friends have placed in you, and all will lend you their moral support to make a man of yourself.

We are very sorry that it has been made possible to chronicle the above and we only do it as a warning to other boys that transgressors of law must inevitably come to grief.  Honesty is always the best policy.

January 29, 1915
R.M. Gibson and B.D. K. Davis were accused of mixing last Saturday, as the former had the back of his hand skinned and the latter was wearing a peeled nose.  Mr. Davis claims a stick flew up and hit him and Mr. Gibson declares he fell down stairs, but we believe a jury would convict them of fighting on circumstantial evidence.

March 12, 1915
STRINGENT LAW
Senate bill No. 50, an amendment to the local option law, effective for dry territory, is the most drastic ever passed.  It has been signed by the governor and will go into effect about the 20th of next month.  By its provisions, no intoxication liquors in any quantity are allowed in dry territory for any purpose.  A regular pharmacist may handle pure alcohol for certain purposes under a special permit from the probate court, and ministers may receive and have wine for sacramental purposes under a special permit.  No provision is made for any other person, firm, association or corporation to transport, give, sell, drink, or have in his possession one single drop of intoxicating liquor.  Heavy penalties are provided for any violations of the amendment.

May 7, 1915
VANDALISM
On last Monday night, someone thoughtlessly or intentionally ruined some of the new swings at the school grounds by twisting the steel cables into an irredeemable shape.  If the act was thoughtless, the parties should explain and make good for the damage, and if it was malicious, they should be punished.  The swings were put up out of money paid in by the whole district and anyone was at liberty to use them.  The school board is hot on the trail of the parties who did the damage and hopes to bring them to justice.

August 27, 1915
PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES
Hancock & Koontz lost one of their fine big dray horses one night last week—an animal worth $250.  There are some peculiar circumstances surrounding the incident that lead one to believe the horse met with foul play.

Compiled by Eberle Umbach

5 comments:

  1. No Trespassing signs for 5 cents each at the Leader’s stall.

    Hmmm... They've gone up a bit since then - $1.47 at The Home Depot.

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  2. Hi Roy: Back in the days when a nickel was a buck forty seven! Thanks.

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  3. So many delicious nuggets contained within this old reading from the past! I wonder what poor Marble "who had been about town" did to get herself sent to a state industrial school? And I can just imagine young Harry incited by a "blood and thunder" novel disguising himself in female attire to lead an exciting life of robbery. I love the way the new jail is described as being "as hard to get away from as death".

    There was a richness of words and creativity in journalism, even when describing the most simple homespun news, that is lacking today.

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  4. That wonderfully laconic account of the shooting of Wm. Caldwell demonstrates that the West stayed Wild long after the first T-Ford wobbled down Main Street!

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  5. Hi Nana Jo & Dick

    Nana Jo: Great to see you stopping by! According to Eberle, this either refers to the fact that "Marble" was, as they used to say, "fast," or that she was in fact a "working girl." The story about Harry is really something.

    Dick: Yes, that story--& the way in which it's told--is from the collection one that really sticks in my mind. Wild West indeed.

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