Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1879 — Partly Reminiscent. [ARTICLE]

Partly Reminiscent.

1 Town Marshal.— Aspirant* to the . important, honorable and lucrative office of marshal of the town of Renaseiner are as numerous, as persistant, and possibly as able relatively speaking, as democratic aspirants to the presidency of the United States. First, the present incumbent, Mr. -W. W. Reeve, proudly points to a record as economical as that 'of any predecessor. With.less money to operate with, under Ills administration more rods of plank sidewalk and -a greater number good street-cross-ings have been constructed than were in the town before he entered upon official duty. If urgently {demanded by the people, Mr. Reeve eould probably be prevailed upon to sink private preference for public good and perform the manifold duties of the?plcpie for another year. Second, as a matter of course Mr. W. G.JSinoot is on hand again with tiie falling of vernal showers and the bloomingfof delicate flowers as fresh as a young new milch cow with her first calf, ready, willing and anxious tojserve the public; despite the sundry and divers rebuffs and disappointments of the bitter past and past. Third, affable, genial, talkative, Charlie Piatt, crippled exsoldier of the Union cause, ex-sheriff, ex-treasurer of the county, ex-tra good fellow, has active and influential friends that are glad enough to lend a helping vote to a poor man having a large'family to support. Fourth, Zea, Lyman Zea, industrious, laborious, with always a smile and joke and pleasant word for everybody, in season aud out of season, offers a mighty large baud to be Bhaken by an intelligent and appreciating constituency. Fifth and last on this list, though by no means the least one in the matter of physical proportions, is Linueus Martin, young, vigorous, and mighty tojwrestle with shovel, spade, hoe, harrow, scythe and oil-can. In this list t ail three political parties find representation, and»also two nationalities at least; but there |is ink enough religion to quarrel about ob to save the town if threatened with the calamity that befellJSodom, Gomorrah and the ancient cities of the eastern plain.

Elder John Hououwobth is an Adventist Evangelist of tfie passionate highflying stripe. He delivered* sermon or twojiit Rensselaer last year He is a gentleman thirty-five or forty years old, married, and the putative father of several children. He conducted a smoking hot revival at Gifford, lowa, the season past. One day, while resting from the fatigue of immersing fourteen repentant*, he wrote a sweet note of love and slyly slipped it luto the hfjtyl of Miss Eva Roberts, who was persuaded to take a trip with him and impersonate his wife; with all which that may imply, as RevMr. Beecher would suggest. John Bell loved Eva Roberts, not wisely but too intensely. He learned of her folly, murdered her, killed himself, and, perhaps, they are stewing in hell. John Houghworth is anxiously watch* ing for the immediate coming of th 4 Lamb, and hopes to be chosen to rule over a kingdom of ten or fifteen big cities in whose flocks the ewes largely predominate. To re, or, not to be? That’s the question which burdens the thoughts of those who have been interested in the Jasper County Agricultural & Mechanical Association. They are trying to solve to their own personal satisfaction whether it were better and nobler to put;their little bands down into their capacious pockets and, with the coins that jiugle there together, pay off tlie present indebtedness of the society, reorganize it, and begin business anew on a cash basis, or to let ilie beautiful grounds and comfortable improvements be Bold under the sheriff’'s hammer, and confess before the world that they have not enough enterprise and Frit to act together in a tight pinch, and like men pay their just obligations without squealing.

Excursion.— At the invitation of the officials of the Indianapolis, Delphi ft Chicago railroad, a number of Rensselaer people went to Monticello this morning, on a special train, to hear the arguments before Judge Vin* ton in a case involving the payment of several thousand dollars taxes that were voted by the citizens of township, White couuty, levied and collected to aid the building of the said railroad, and which some of the tax-payers have enjoined the county treasurer from delivering to the company now the railroad is built If it would b# in srdsr we would'like to know who got that SSOO that was sent from Washington City to help olect Major Calkins to congress last fall. — Jx* Porte Argue. That’s a 1 audable ambition, perhaps. Suppose you interrogate one or both of the opposition competitors about it. it more successful ttrinfnuipberiri It is possible that a few hundred dollars these hard times might have expansive power to split a party wide apart, if judiciously applied, and let a man out of a close place, through the gap, into congress. jiMrf /pr luck and fun send for Grover and investigate the matter.; iaMmEoc.

Let us help one another. This little tofu e should be written mi every heart end stamped on story mempry. It should be the golden rule pvaetlosd not only in evnr j household but throughout the worldj— iUswell Palladium r Fine sentiment; very fine, young man. Let u» begin the good once. Send ue a couple or three hundred dollars fpr a starter. The Plymouth Grecnbackrr appears to believe that ife party is growing.— Valparaiso VidelU. . Oh. it let' Like the days In December, it In growing shorter, bolder, and beautifully lees. On* or two more democratic caucuses will absorb the remainder iu tail of ttue late ‘‘balance ofpowet*.'’ , w . .A.-y. A.. Polstki County has* a fewer number of days of pufllc schools, thsn than any hrher county in HTnamac Democrat. . Possibly this fact may not account for the large democratic majorities in those counties, but it is at least a coincidence worthy of philosophical inquiry^

Lately, while examining tiles of Thk Union published in 1869, our eyes wore arrested by of the Incidents that occurred in ihe days of the pioneer white settlers of Jasper county. The historian relates that in tlie fall of 1836 Mr. Joseph J), Yeoman, Mr. John Nowels, little David Nowels and a young girl named Ellen, traveled up the northwestern bank of the Iroquois river with an ox-team and ope nightfall went into camp on the geographical spot that has sinoe become locally known as “Liberal Corner,’’ whith spot is situated on the northeast earner of the square where Front street crosses Washington street in the town of Rensselaer. This camp they mads their headquarters for several weeks, while employed in building a winter shelter for Mr. Yeoman’s family This shelter was an unhewn log cabin of the primitive style of architecture then prevailing throughout this region and still to be met occasionally in the less frequented and sparsely settled districts- of North America. A hollow square was enclosed by a low wall of rough togs, notched at the ends to keep them iu place; clapboards, split from oaks of the native primeval forest, kept in place by weight-poles, made the roes. There was no floor save the lap of Mother Earth, no carpeting but the frost-dyed verdure. Neither parlor woodburning stove, anthracite base-burner, nor cheerful grate was there to warm the chill December air, but a heap of burning logs in the center of the enclosure gave the heat necessary for cooking and comfort, wtiile the removal of a few clapboards from the top course of the roof gave polite and mute suggestion of place of egress for the smoke and vapor. It is probable that a better ventilated dwelling was never built in the county. This was the first building made by man on the site of Rensselaer since the foundations of the earth were laid of which there is record. It is believed to have stood about where the race bridge now is, at the Washington street crossing, possibly a few feet southeastward. The persons who helped at the building of this edifice were, Joseph D. Yeoman. John N«wels, Mrs. Sarah Yeomau and David Nowels.

Of the four who thus laid the foundation I of the thriving town of Rensselaer, forty years ago,* only one is now living. For four decades, two and a half generations, Mr. David Nowels has had residence in Rensselaer or in its immediate vicinity. He has seen the aboriginal inhabitants of the region ■dispockessed and borne westward beyoud the great arterial rivers of the continent, by the aggressive, unpitying tide of another race and strange civilization. He has seen the wild indigenous vegetation superseded by plants cultivated for the sustenance of the invaders. The places where fed wild animals and where their young were born and reared are the pasture grounds of the domesticated horse,, sheep, bog and horned cattle. The solitudes that were invaded by the shrill orj of savage beasts'and birds of prey, or the fierce whoop of no loss savage men, are solitudes no longer, and the sounds now heard are those of civilisation, the arts and improvement. The trail of the Indian and the flint track of game have been obliterated by the streets, highways and railroads of the- Anglo-Saxon. The wilderness, coy and modest and untutored, has been wooed and won, and is now the sedate and stately and experienced matron, the mother of many robust children. There are only three or four persons besides Mr. Nowels, if there is another, who have been so long and so intimately identified dith the growth ’and development of Jasper oounty audit* capital town. Unobtrusive, Industrious and for-seeing, Mr. Nowels has accumulated a modest competence, which has been patiently earned with bard work from the natural resources of the locality —the developed productiveness of the soil; alwsys found among the men who give atrength, solidity and cbarater to the enterprises which havodrained the stagnant pools from seme of the meet productive lands, which introduced societies that have fostered agriculture and encouraged improvements in its various departments, which gave us railroad communication with the great busy, progressive, world of business and mads a good market at our door*—he ia justly rated among the best and moat valuable ciliseni of Jasper county. As was said before, Mr. David Nowels ia the sole survivor of the pioneer party of builders who made the nucleus around which the town of Rensselaer has acoamulated and crystalized. Nearly half a eentury, with it* mighty changes to nktiont and peoples, has passed over Abe-world since he began the work of building up, and he ia still making improvttento. Commencing with the primitive cabin of the first settlers, he has kept paee with the improvements which settlement, civilisation and invention have introduced, and has just finished the largest and most imposing building in the county. It is a brick three etoriw high,JO x .80 fact ground dimensions. It is situated on the southeast corner of Washington and Front streets, Rensselaer, directly opposite to and less than one hundred feet from the old cnmping ground of forty year* ago, and within nn easy stone's-cast of little eld log cabin that first nestled among the foreet fringe that shaded the rippling water* of the Iroquois rapids. The ground floor is tiH*a*Pt*»g*d,i ReglJM>iegat the northwest'

corner, there Is a edit es bendaoeje now s^shShr z&dz'zxzsnfX.Zi end stairway the malironfrtbce to the hotel rooms above; oast word from this dktieeou are two apartments mob 20186 fret hi alas, each having (bent and roar doors, that an furnished witkeawniers, drawers, shelving, etc., end fitted up Iks' stores; ia rear of the bank offlce, and satiralp disceonaolst from it, is e room 20*20 toot, nioely finished, that would bo admirable for th« offiee of 0 lawyer- doctor, dontiat, or agent, fetfMs on Front street. The entire second and third stories of this fine house hare boon arranged with special reference to hotel purposes. On the second floor an, the office, baggageroom, ladies' reception and dressiug rooms, gantiomon'o reading and smoking room, the dining room. Htrton^nontryVdomu, Theihir? floor ia partitioned oT into twen-ty-three large bedrooms and ample paaoagewsys. Attached to the building, end, if necessary, may be connected with the first floor of the hold, are fire good bedroom# and a suite consisting of parlor and bedroom, the parlor fronting upon Washington street. All necessary outbuildings, cellar, and ampls drainage, ars convaniently connected with the hotel. On the first floor of the hotel are both soft and sulphur watsr in abundant supply. The building and its appointments are all upon a liberal scale, when comparison is mads with present surroundings. It is s generous private enterprise, ah oruabient of‘Which the town may be justly proud, and, when once people abroad learn that Comfortable quarters may be bad in this region of beautiful seeaery, flowing wells, medicinal springs, good fishing, excellent hunting, intelligent and well-bred people, pleasant summer climate, and innumerable attractions, they will flock hither from tho turmoil of cities, sad tho building will prove a source of proflt to tho owner, lessee, and those who do business in the town. It Is a noble monument to the enterprise of a public-epirited gentleman.