Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1909 — Lafayette Autoists to Visit Rensselaer Tuesday and Wednesday. [ARTICLE]

Lafayette Autoists to Visit Rensselaer Tuesday and Wednesday.

Automobile owners of Lafayette will take an outing this Tuesday and Wednesday, and will spend Tuesday night in Rensselaer. the trip the Lafayette Journal says:

The automobiles will assemble at the court house on Tuesday morning and, in single file, will move west through Montmorenci to Otterbein; thence to Oxford and on to Boswell. At Boswell the parade will go southward to College Corner and west to Ambia. Here the parade will move in a southwesterly direction through the Grand Prairie, which has historical significance because of its selection many years ago by a sect in the, east for a “Community Home.” At the time these people with socialistic ideas located on Grand Prairie, they built an enormous house and all lived in it together. The people were eccentric and carried out their ideas in their home life. With rude implements, they tilled the soil, which was productive of great crops. It was thus they lived for years, many of the inhabitants growing wealthy. As time elapsed the people were hosts for distinguished guests who came from the east. Information of the existence of the Community Home reached Horace Greely, who referred to it in glowing terms in an issue of his newspaper.

The trip will be resumed at Ambia. The autoists will go from there to Fowler, where they will dine. Enroute they will visit “Hazelden,” Geo. Ade’s farm at Brook. Leaving Fowler the excursionists will go to Remington; thence to Wolcott and on to Rensselafer, where they will put up for the night. Good hotel accommodations will be afforded. On Wednesday morning the autoists will leave Rensselaer for Roselawn and the region of the celebrated Beaver lake, which at one time, was noted as a fishing and hunting resort. Since its primitive days, the land surrounding the lake has been thoroughly drained and put into cultivation. The soil is fertile and some of the finest farms in the state are located in the region of Beaver lake.