Pioneers of Fort Madison Iowa

This sketch of the early pioneers of Fort Madison was published in Illustrated Fort Madison, 1896.

Augustus Caesar Dodge Iowa Politician

Augustus Caesar Dodge was a delegate to Congress from Iowa Territory in 1840. After Iowa became a state in 1846, he became one of its first United States senators.

In 1855, President Franklin Pierce appointed him minister to Spain. He ran for governor when he returned to the country, and later served as mayor of Burlington.

Plans For The New Hyperion Club Des Moines 1909

 

(Picture from Des Moines Register. January 17, 1909)

In January 1909, the Des Moines Register published plans for the Hyperion Club, offering a glimpse of what was shaping up to be one of Des Moines’s more ambitious country clubs.

The Hyperion started out in 1904 as a dancing club, organized by about 19 members. Before long, the group shifted gears, reorganized as a country club, and grew to around 100 members.

By 1909, it was still growing. Membership had reached 225, and the club was clearly thinking bigger. Its grounds, near Waveland Park, covered 225 acres and included an 18-hole golf course laid out at full championship length.

The plan printed in the paper showed a sketch of a new clubhouse with plenty of extras. The building was to include family quarters, bachelor quarters, lockers, a bathhouse, and a billiard parlor. There was also to be a separate building called Bachelor’s Hall.

The club sat along the Perry Interurban Line, about a 35-minute ride from downtown Des Moines. That made it close enough for city members to get there with little trouble, while still feeling like a trip out of town.

Brown-Williams Auto Co. Advertisement Des Moines 1909

This advertisement for the Brown-Williams Auto Co. appeared in the Des Moines Register on January 17, 1909. The dealership was located at 512 Grand Avenue in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

Sioux City Telephone Company 1907

The Sioux City Journal published this picture of the operations center of the Sioux City Telephone Company on February 17, 1907. Pictured are: Milton S. Crandall, wire chief; and Irma Markley.

Waterloo Fire Department 1919

 

New Waterloo fire truck - an American-La France model

1919 was a year of big changes for the Waterloo Fire Department. Longtime chief A. A. Dunham retired in early August, citing health problems. Assistant Chief Martin Burke filled in as chief for a few months until Captain Ray Tiller was appointed chief in early October.

Shortly after that, the city council approved the purchase of a new American-La France fire truck at a cost of nearly $12,000. The new truck had a complete hose and chemical system and a booster pump. It could pump 300 gallons per minute.

Davenport Police Motorcycle Patrol 1914

Motorcycle police officers Edwin Blackhan and John Bryant

 In the spring of 1913, the Davenport Police Department tried something new.

 

Automobiles were multiplying, drivers were testing the limits of speed, and the old methods—foot patrols and horse officers—couldn’t always keep up. So the department bought a motorcycle.

 

The plan was simple. A motorcycle officer would remain near the station house. When an emergency call came in, he was dispatched, racing through city streets faster than any patrol wagon could manage.

 

The first motorcycle officer was Charles Boettcher. He set the pace for the new experiment, proving that two wheels and a powerful engine could change the way a city was policed. When Boettcher moved up to detective work, Olaf Dahlquist took his place.

 

By 1914, the motorcycle squad had become indispensable. The Davenport Democrat and Leader said the department would be “lost” without its motorcycle officers. Speeding automobiles—sometimes called “auto speed maniacs”—were becoming a menace. The department answered with a machine built to match them.

 

They chose a Flying Merkle, a powerful motorcycle capable of reaching 55 to 60 miles per hour. That speed made it more than a novelty. It made it a weapon against reckless driving. As the department put it, a “motorcycle cop is the only effectual solution of the auto speed maniac problem.” It took a high-powered car to escape a motorcycle man, and few drivers owned one.

 

In the spring of 1914, two officers carried the city’s motorcycle duties. Edwin Blackhan handled the daytime shift. John Bryant took the night watch.

 

What began as a simple experiment quickly proved its worth. Within a year, Davenport’s motorcycle patrol wasn’t just a curiosity. It was essential. And plans were in the works to add another cycle.

Torpedo Motorcycles Advertisement 1909

This advertisement for Torpedo Motorcyles was published in The Daily Times on April 3, 1909. The cycles manufactured by The Hornecker Motor Mfg. Co, in Geneseso, Illinois, were sold by John Vollertsen in Davenport, Iowa.

Cadillac Advertisement Davenport Auto Show

Check out this sexy new Cadillac convertible that was featured at the 1912 Auto Show in Davenport, Iowa. This advertisement for the Iowa Auto and Tire Company was published in The Cedar Rapids Gazette. February 24, 1912.

1912 Velie Motor Vehicle Co. Advertisement

 

This advertisement for the Velie Motor Vehicle Co., Moline, Illinois, was published in The Daily Times on February 24, 1912.

1905 Olds Motor Works Advertisement Davenport Iowa

 

If you lived in Davenport in 1905, the Oldsmobile Touring Car might have been the automobile for you. This advertisement for Mason's Carriage Works was published in The Daily Times on April 8, 1905.

Soldier Letter From 4th Iowa Cavalry At Fort Scott

This letter from an unnnamed captain of the 4th Iowa Cavalry dated Fort Scott, October 26, 1864, was published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye on November 12, 1864.

Dawn attack at Trading Post on the Marais Des Cygnes River

Yesterday was a glorious day for the gallant Second Division. We encamped the night we left you three miles north of New Santa Fe. Moved next morning at 6 a.m. and marched 20 miles, coming up with Price’s army at a little Trading Post on the Marais Des Cygnes River where we halted at 11 p.m. The next morning at daybreak, Sanborn’s Brigade M. S. M. in front, supported by the 4th Iowa Cavalry drove the enemy from a strong position on the bluff north of the river, routed them from their camp on the south side of the river, capturing one piece of cannon and followed them out on the prairie closely.

Two miles from Mound City and fourteen from Trading Post, Marmaduke’s division made a stand. Phillips’ First Brigade M. S. M. came up on the right and formed first. Then our command came up on the left and formed a column of regiments, the 10th Minnesota in advance, the 4th Iowa next, and the 3rd Iowa in the rear of our 21st Brigade.

Civil War Letter From 6th Iowa Infantry 1863

This letter from the 6th Iowa Infantry at Oak Ridge, Miss., dated August 24, 1863, was printed in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye on September 12, 1863.

6th Iowa Infantry on a scouting expedition

Having just returned from a sojourn at Paducah, Ky., made in consequence of a wound received at Black River on the 6th of July, I thought an account of a few things noticed on the trip down the river might not prove uninteresting to your readers. 

 

And first, allow me to say that the hospitals at Paducah are just what they ought to be. Those who have friends there may rest assured that everything possible is being done to make them comfortable, and if they do not recover, it will not be because they are beyond the reach of medical skill and the equally important attention of the kindest and best nurses. 

Civil War Soldier's Letter From 2nd Iowa Cavalry

 On May 8, 1863, The Muscatine Journal printed this letter from an unnamed member of the 2nd Iowa Cavalry.

2nd Iowa Cavalry setting off on a scouting expedition

April 17, we, the 2nd Cavalry, started out on a scout, in company with the Sixth and Seventh Illinois Cavalry, having five pieces of two pounders. We all went south together as far south as Houston, which is south and east of Grenada. Here our regiment was sent off on the Columbus Road. When within about 20 miles of Columbus (on the Ohio and Mobile railroad), we were attacked by parts of three rebel regiments, 900 strong. We had about 500 men, but soon made the rebels fly, with no loss whatever on our side. We wounded 12 of the rebels, that we know of.

About an hour before this fight, 27 of our men were sent out on a byroad, leading into a swamp, to get a lot of horses and mules, known to be secreted there. They got some 60 head, and mounting a lot of darkies on them, started to rejoin the regiment. Soon, however, they found out that they were cut off by the rebels and endeavored to reach us by another route. After riding on this tack eight or ten miles, they found themselves between a heavy rebel column and their advanced guard. They now took off through the woods, on no road at all, but in executing this maneuver four men who were in the rear were taken prisoner. The rest got back to the regiment about 11 o’clock at night. The four men taken were from Atalissa. Their names are: Chas. Cope, C. Eves, B. F. Barkalow, and Barclay J. Embree.

Cy Slapnick Didn't Make It In The Majors But He Knew How To Pick Them

 

Cyril Charles Slapnicka was born in Cedar Rapids in 1886. Farm country. Immigrant parents. Baseball was the quickest way out of town and the surest way back in.

He pitched forever in the minors. Iowa. Illinois. Anywhere they’d pay him. In 1911 he won 26 games in Rockford and forced the Chicago Cubs to notice. September call-up. Big league clubhouse. A few appearances. Then, back on the train.

He resurfaced with Pittsburgh in 1918. Ten major league games total. Record: 1–6. He wasn’t a star. Not even close.

A lot of men would’ve faded right there.

Slapnicka didn’t.

In 1921, he signed on with Cleveland as a scout. That’s where the story actually starts. He had an eye, and knew what a big-league arm looked like before it knew itself. He drove Iowa’s back roads. Watched high school kids throw in half-empty parks. Talked to parents. Took notes. Made bets with other scouts and usually won.

In 1936, he found Bob Feller, an Iowa farm kid throwing gas past grown men. Slapnicka signed him. That changed Cleveland for a decade. Later came Bob Lemon and a pipeline of players who filled out rosters that could actually win.

For a stretch in the mid-1930s, he ran the club. General manager. Contracts, salaries, egos. No draft system back then. You wanted a player; you found him first and signed him fast. Slapnicka operated like a man who understood scarcity. Talent was gold. Hesitation was death.

He stayed with Cleveland over forty years, scouting into his seventies because he trusted his judgment more than anyone else’s reports.

He died in 1979 at 93, back in Cedar Rapids.

Here’s the clean version: He had a short, forgettable pitching career and a long, consequential second act.

He didn’t conquer the mound. He built the roster. And in baseball, that can matter more.