Jim Elected Republican County Chairman

In August, Jim began a new chapter in his life.  The Eagle of August 22, 1893 featured the following news article:

“Mr. Jas. E. Whipple of this place was elected Chairman of the Republican County Central Committee replacing James G. Mallory who will run for the office of county treasurer in the fall election.  Mr. Whipple is a native of Vinton and one of the most active Republicans.  For the most part of his life he has lived in Indiana, and for two or three years previous to his removal to Vinton took an active part in county politics.  He holds the responsible position of City Clerk.  He is a good executive officer, and is a splendid successor to Mr. Mallory.  He will make an active, stirring campaign.”Whipple Leads Benton County Republican Campaign

On Tuesday September 19, Jim convened what the Eagle described as “the largest Benton county Republican Convention held in Vinton in years.  It nominated a full slate of candidates and heard an address from Frank Jackson, candidate for Governor.  He organized a full speaking schedule for himself including eight speeches in various sections of the county in October. The Eagle of September 28, 1894 commended Jim “for the open aggressive campaign” he had planned for the fall election.  Every town and township was to be visited “by a full commitment of local and state speakers.”  A full and free discussion of the issues was promised and Democrats were to be invited to all Republican meetings.  “We are glad to see a genuine Republican campaign,” the editor wrote.  “Let every Republican give his support to it and to the Chairman.”

On October 16 the Eagle commended Whipple for taking the Republican campaign “directly to the farmers” by holding meetings in the school houses of the smaller town and townships and for “livening” them with musical groups including glee clubs, Sprenger’s Band, and the Achuff Brothers.  On October 19 it wrote that Jim was holding “rousing” meetings all over the county and that “Republicans are rallying for the whole ticket.”  It reported on October 23  that “Mr. J. E. Whipple . . . is hard at work pushing the campaign.  Republicans are wide-awake and are anxious to discuss the questions at issue.  All Whipple needs now is the solid backing of the individual members of the county.”  In the October 30 issue, the editor, in a political roundup article, said “the Republicans, headed by their Chairman Mr. J. E. Whipple have made a clean, gallant campaign, and the individual members can ‘clinch’ the work on election day by bringing home a full Republican ticket.”

Benton County Republicans Win All But One Office

With the exception of their gubernatorial nominee, Republicans swept statewide elections and the county ticket, except Barnell for Superintendent of Schools, won.  The Eagle of November 10 wrote that “J. E. Whipple has proved a valiant successor to Mr. Mallory and . . . deserves the thanks of the Party for the tireless campaign carried on.”  He received warm letters of thanks from J. E. Blythe, State Party Chairman, and E.G. Penrose State Senator-Elect for his “untiring and efficient work” in the campaign.  Following announcement of the results, he organized a huge bonfire (flames shot 50′ in the air) attended by over a thousand people, hundreds with bells, horns, and drums.  On Monday evening November 13, 40 friends surprised the Whipples at home when they presented Jim and Ellen with handsome chairs and made a social evening out of the event.

It’s main story in the November 13 issue:

“The Eagle wishes to congratulate chairman J. E. Whipple of the Republican committee upon his second splendid victory in the county.  Mr. Whipple is a hard worker, he never sleeps.  The enthusiasm and energy he puts into the campaign himself  inspires his co-workers.  He filled every nook and corner of the county.  His school house campaign
was one of the most complete ever carried on in the county.  The meetings were well attended, their speeches earnestly listened to, and they were undoubtedly productive of much good.  The campaign  was conducted on high educational grounds and the
good that resulted therefrom cannot be gainsaid.  (contradicted).”

Vinton To Host State Firemen

Following the 1894 election Jim was named local Corresponding Secretary for the Fireman’s State Association, an organization that represented the volunteer fire departments in Iowa.  The Association scheduled its annual convention for Vinton in June.  In January 1895 he was installed as an officer of the Modern Woodmen, an insurance organization.  He also resumed his real estate and insurance advertising.

The Fireman’s Association assignment required him to travel about the state to promote the meeting set for June 18-21.  In May he announced that $2,500 in cash prizes would be awarded during the tournament and that 3,000 uniformed firemen from 32 cities and towns would compete.  Vinton was the smallest host town ever and its tournament was judged a success.

Relected City Clerk

He was unanimously reelected Clerk by the City Council April 6, 1894 and continued his political activity by accepting a third term as County Republican Chairman at its Convention June 26.  He was also named a Delegate to the State Convention.  According to the Eagle, it was “the general desire that he retain Party management.”  The editor wrote that Jim did the Party’s work in an impartial manner and that his enthusiasm inspired Party associates.  He also noted that Jim’s conduct was agreeable to his Democratic opponents because he treated them “fairly, both politically and personally.”

The City Council directed Jim to go to Clarion, Iowa in April to inspect its electric light plant and to report his findings to them.  At the same meeting, the Mayor issued a Proclamation directing the citizens to clean up all filth, manure piles, ashes, etc. in and about their premises.

Long Distance Service Comes to Vinton

The Iowa Union Telephone Co. offered long distance service beginning July 1.  The city contracted with Bigelow Electric Light Co. of Lincoln, Nebraska in October to construct its electric plant at a cost of $10,883.  The waterworks building was enlarged to house the electrical machinery.

Jim organized the 1894 Republican county canvass which the Eagle reported was “progressing smoothly” by the last week of October.  In addition he had meetings booked for nearly every township.  He concluded the campaign Saturday November 2, with a rally at Vinton’s Watson Opera House with Congressman Cousins and Matt Parrot, candidate for Lieut. Governor, as featured speakers.  His organizing efforts paid off.  When the votes were counted, Republicans won all county races except Superintendent of Schools which they lost by 49 votes.  The Party’s majority in Vinton was 342 and the county vote was 2,815 Republican to 2,548 Democrat.

The Eagle editor lauded his ceaseless work and complimented him on a strong campaign and said because of his work in the last three elections, Benton county can now be “placed in the solid Republican column.”  Jim, Ellen, and Blaine celebrated the election victory with Thanksgiving dinner at the Ralyea House and he ended the year by being elected an officer of the Knights of Pythias Lodge.

The City Council accepted the light plant following an inspection by Consulting Engineer W. H. Schott from Des Moines.  The plant cost $16,411.81 and was powered by a battery of three boilers and a Sioux City Corliss engine of 150 horsepower.  The dynamo was of the Ft. Wayne type and sufficient to power 1500 16-candle power lamps.  E.S. Toby began advertising electrical fixtures and supplies of all kinds for residences and that he had hired an expert electrician to wire both residences and stores.

Appointed  Utilities Superintendent

He was unanimously re-elected City Clerk March 18, 1895 and  the City Council elected him the first Superintendent of the Electric Light and Water Works System effective February1, 1896 at a salary of $50 a month.  He was to continue as Clerk at the rate of $25 a month.

A controversy started almost immediately after the appointment was announced.  J.F. Allen, County Democratic Chairman and editor-publisher of the Benton County Times, Vinton’s official Democratic newspaper, came out against paying Jim a salary for his services as Clerk.  He argued that $50 was adequate for both jobs.  Councilman Murphy used the columns of the Eagle, Vinton’s official Republican newspaper, to champion Jim’s appointment and defend the proposed salary.  Murphy, seeking re-election to the Council from Ward Three, was challenged by Allen with Jim’s salary the major issue of the campaign.  The candidates attacked each other weekly in their respective newspapers.

Murphy wrote that Allen, chairman of the Democratic Party, was “trying to play a cute trick in politics” by misrepresenting the salary issue.  He said Allen was great at finding fault and [playing] politics and that business qualification was “the least characteristic he possessed.”

He argued that the superintendent would be responsible for $60,000 worth of property, would run the largest “business house” in Vinton, oversee the needs of at least 500 customers and the book-keeping necessary thereto, be responsible for thousands of dollars of fees, and have to bond himself to the city for thousands of dollars. “A cheap man would be dear at any price and would cost the city twice his salary.”  He argued that the Council had a responsibility to hire a competent administrator “and pay what it is worth.”
He accused Allen of misstatements and charged that Allen’s campaign to paint him as being more interested “in aiding a political friend than in serving the city justly” was not true.

“I do not believe in cheap,” he wrote, “nor will I vote for cheap wages to curry popular favor.  It is a matter of record that I voted for the HIGHEST PRICED engine for the electric light plant because I believe it was the CHEAPEST for the city.  Mr. Allen’s chief desire is to beat the editor of the Eagle and Mr. Whipple, the Chairman of the Republican County Central Committee.  Backed by the vote of his Party, he came near accomplishing his object as quite a number of Republicans fell into his trap.  “I pay him the high compliment of saying he is the slickest campaign liar I have ever battled against.”

Murphy concluded his side of the controversy in the Eagle of March 17 by referring to the editor of the Times as his “genial contemporary” and accused him of “taking another spasm on city salaries” by trying to convince Vinton readers that the Times paid nearly as much taxes as the Eagle.  Murphy’s response:

“Mr. Allen pays taxes to the amount of $27.34 while Mr. Murphy pays $70.19 – a slight difference.”  Murphy won the March election 82-72.

Electric Service Improves Life for Vinton Citizens

Electricity altered existence in Vinton.  Among other things it made operating rooms, dentist offices, and barber shops safer, walking the streets at night safer, and making evening hours more productive.  In less than 50 years Vinton had run the gamut of illumination from the flickering home-made candle to light that appears at the touch of a switch.  When streetlights were first turned on, Vintonites probably viewed them with the same wonder they gave the wood-burning locomotive in 1869.

Based on his work in a drug store as a young man, Jim undoubtedly was on hand when Palmer’s Drug Store showed off its “Magnificent Soda Fountain” in early April.  The Eagle dubbed it “the finest fountain in this section of the state and something that has long been needed in Vinton.”

Jim gave up his real estate and insurance business and relinquished his Republican Chairmanship after being elected Clerk-Superintendent.  He announced his candidacy for County Recorder in July “subject to the decision of the Republican County Convention.”

Jim Nominated for County Recorder

The Benton County Convention, one of the largest ever with every township except Homer represented, was held in Vinton August 19.  All seats were taken and delegates overflowed into the aisles. The names of Jim and A.E. Graves of Jackson were placed in nomination for Recorder.  Jim won 46 to 37 and the Vinton vote of 16-0 provided his margin of victory.  M.J. Tobin of Vinton was nominated for County Attorney.  The Eagle of August 25 called the Republican ticket “one of the strongest ever put before the people.”  They noted Jim was the first native of Vinton to be nominated by either Party and  “his ability to conduct the office is conceded and the office never had a more painstaking official than he will make.”

The Urbana Monitor wrote that “James Whipple and M.J. Tobin have done as much as any two men in the county for the cause of Republicanism and if  their competency and integrity to party principles are considered, they will receive the entire 600 majority Benton will give McKinley, and a few hundred votes of Democrats who are interested in good government and recognize merit and its need in positions of trust.”

Vinton’s Bank Fails After 40 Years of Opertation

Vinton’s first bank failure occurred Friday September 18 when the banking house of S. H. Watson & Sons closed its doors about 2 p.m.  The excitement in town was intense that afternoon and Saturday.  Founded over 40 years ago, it was one of the best known banks in the state and appeared to have unlimited resources.  It was heavy in real estate loans and “the money agitation of this year” made it impossible to turn this asset into ready money and the bank was unable to meet its depositor’s demands

The main issue of the national election of 1896 was clear:  Republicans supported the gold standard and nominated handsome, genial, and thoroughly conservative William McKinley.  William Jennings Bryan, Congressman from Nebraska, was the leader of the silver wing of the Democratic Party and won his Party’s nomination July 9 in Chicago.  The Populist Party, realizing nominating their own candidate would insure the election of the “gold bug” McKinley, endorsed Bryan.

A close and crucial contest was anticipated.  Seldom had the two great Parties divided so clearly on fundamental issues.  Silver against gold pitted city against countryside, industry against agriculture, East against South and West; the nineteenth century against the twentieth.

Republicans Raise Huge Sums of Money

Mark Hanna, McKinley’s campaign manager, raised huge sums by “assessing” the great bankers, oil refineries, insurance men, and meat packers, using the threat of impending business chaos and wild inflation to loosen the purse strings of the tycoons.  McKinley’s campaign was dignified and carefully organized.  The candidate received delegations of voters on his front porch in Canton, Ohio.

With little money and no organizational genius like Hanna to direct his campaign, Bryan created a “modern” campaign.  Heretofore, it was considered undignified for the nominee to go out and seek votes.  But Bryan, realizing the concerted power of business and the press were against him, and that his greatest assets were his magnificent ability as an orator and his personal sincerity and charm, took his campaign to the voters.  Between summer and November, he traveled a precedent-shattering 18,000 miles, made more than 600 speeches, and directly addressed an estimated five million Americans.

When it became apparent that Bryan’s campaign was effective, Republican leaders became frightened and circulated a rumor that Bryan was insane.  A manufacturer told his workers they could “vote as they pleased but if Bryan is elected the whistle will not blow Wednesday morning.”  The Nation, which supported McKinley, reported many companies had placed orders with their suppliers “to be executed if Bryan is defeated and not otherwise.”

The McKinley organization made a monumental effort to get out the vote on election day.  They provided free transportation to and from the polls, paid men for time lost in voting, and expended enormous efforts in the crucial North Central states.  McKinley carried them all and with them the nation.  The vote was 6,036,000 to 5,468,000 a margin of 568,000.  The change of a handful of votes in half a dozen key states would have swung the election to Bryan.  The electoral college vote was 271 to 176.

Jim Wins Recorder Office With a 600-Vote Majority

Republicans won all county offices by large margins.  The official canvass showed Jim carrying 20 of the 29 voting precincts and winning with a majority of 600.  Party members celebrated the election the following Saturday with a noon barbeque where 750 pounds of ox, 200 loaves of bread, and 75 pounds of cheese were served.  After the feast a large crowd assembled at the Court house where Jim and Tobin spoke.  A huge bon-fire was lit that evening at the corner of Washington and Jefferson and the Marching Clubs were out in force along with many townspeople with tin horns and Roman candles.  After the fire burned out, the crowd assembled at the Courthouse for more speeches.

Jim resigned his job as City Clerk and Utilities Superintendent on January 1, 1897.  The Eagle of January 5, in commenting on his resignation, said he “has made a splendid official” during his four years in office.  “His records are in splendid shape and his statement of the financial condition of the city is ample evidence of his ability in that line.  Mr. Whipple retired with the good wishes of the Mayor and Council.”

Later that month he was installed as Master of Work for the Knights of Pythias and gave a patriotic address at the high school for Washington’s birthday celebration on February 22.  In April he reported collecting recording fees of $485.30 for the first quarter of 1897.  His office expense was $12.45.  His office and the office of the County Clerk were papered and painted in May and their rooms looked “as bright and cheerful as rooms can be made in the old rookery.”

Heads Vinton Chapter of Sons of Veterans

He was a Captain in the Vinton Chapter of Sons of Veterans and in May Gen. Gibson, Camp No. 56, Division of Iowa, nominated him to be Division Commander at the next division encampment to be held at Marshalltown.  He was described as “exceedingly well qualified for the position” based on his work with the Eugene Camp, Division of Indiana and the reorganization of the Vinton Camp.  He was elected a Delegate and attended the National Convention in Indianapolis in mid August and from there went to Eugene to visit his parents.  It was the last time he saw his mother who died while he was in the Army during the Spanish-American War.

Reverend B.M. Williams held a 25-night tent revival in Vinton in May and June.  Crowds of approximately 1,500 attended his nightly meetings.  He also held morning prayer meetings and gave Bible readings most afternoons.  His final revival Sunday night June 6 was attended by almost 2,500.  About 150, principally men and boys, came forward and pledged to live a Christian life.  Rev. Williams was said to be the cause of several Bible classes and cottage prayer meetings organized that evening and almost 500 conversions.

Circus Features World’s Tallest and Shortest Persons

The Barnum & Bailey circus was in Cedar Rapids for a show July 30 and the railroads scheduled extra runs at a special low rate.  The circus featured 70 horses performing in one ring, a dog that plays football, a pig that actually talks so you can distinguish its words, Miss Ella Ewing, the tallest person in the world, over 8 feet, Great Peter, the smallest man in the world, age 17 and weighing six and a half pounds.  They had a herd of performing elephants and all the big aerial acts including the little girl who is shot from an arrow sixty feet through midair.  They advertised the finest menagerie on earth including over 400 horses of the finest breed.  It is presumed that the James Whipple family attended.

Jim was elected Vice Chairman of Fidelity Lodge No. 47, Knights of Pythias in December and later that month attended the Convention of County Recorders in Des Moines.  In January 1898 he reported $408.50 in fees collected in the fourth quarter.  Early February found him busy recording the largest mortgage ever in the county’s history.  The recording was for $165 million and encompassed 83 printed pages.  The recording fee was $25.

The Watson Opera House featured Hyers Company of Colored Comedians” the first week of February 1898.  They played two shows: “Colored Aristocracy” and “Plantation Frolics.”  Their star, May C. Hyers, offered $10,000 to anyone singing a “contralto of her compass,” (range) she being able to sing from C To C in two octaves.  Prices: children, 15¢, adults, 35¢.  Vintonites who enjoyed band music entrained to Cedar Rapids on February 16 for the John Phillip Sousa Band performance.

TO BE CONTINUED, PART 5

The Family Moves to Vinton, Benton County, Iowa

Jim arrived in Vinton the end of September 1888 to visit his Whipple relatives and to assess the opportunities available to him were he to move his family there.  It was his first trip back in 29 years.

He stayed with his uncle Cyrenius, who by then was one of the leading farmers in that section of Iowa.   He also met with his uncle Henry and his married Whipple aunts Angeline McKinley, Eliza Kearns, and Luana Edmonds, along with a host of cousins.  By then, his cousin William P., Cyrenius’s oldest son, had been practicing law and selling real estate in the county for many years and along with his brother Milo was an active member of the Republican party.  Apparently convinced Vinton would be a desirable new home for his family, he purchased William’s real estate business and moved Ellen and Blaine there.

Vinton’s population at that time was estimated at 3,500 and the principal business streets, Jefferson, Washington, and Beckett, were lined with frame and brick buildings, mostly two stories high.   It was a horse market of considerable importance with fine draft animals shipped east and west annually. Cattle shipments were even greater and hog exports were immense.

Vinton was the County Seat and Active Business Community

The city Water Works were fed by artesian wells 1,300′ deep with a capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day.  Water piped from the Cedar river was used to fight fire.  The Iowa State School for the Blind was established there in 1862 and the town had two graded schools and a small library.  It was the County Seat, home of the Benton County Agricultural Association, headquarters for the Order of Railway Telegraphers for North America, and the Tilford Collegiate Academy and Business University.

Its Watson Canning Factory employed up to 400 on a 24-hour basis every fall canning sweet corn for wholesale distribution to principal cities in Kansas and Missouri. Washington Machine Company, which manufactured a washing machine with the brand name of Summit, located there in 1885. It sold to the wholesale and retail trade. There were two opera houses, the Crescent which seated 500, and The Watson with a capacity of 600; and the Ralyea House, a three-story brick hotel. The city council began investigating the possibility of electric service in June 1889.

Jim’s business, J. E. Whipple & Co., dealt in the sale and exchange of real estate and personal property.   His advertisement in the January 1, 1889 Vinton Eagle noted his firm was “Successor to W. P. Whipple & Co.” and wanted “all kinds of Personal Property and Real Estate including Stocks of Merchandise, Hotels, Mills, Farms, and Town Property to Sell or Exchange. Our facilities for making sales or trades are first-class as we have correspondents in all parts of the country.  Office over Farmers’ Land and Trust Company Bank.” A news item in the paper identified him as a “cousin of W. P. Whipple and lately removed here from Indiana.  Our citizens will find him a pleasant gentleman to do business with.  Business entrusted to the firm will receive close attention.”

Business Includes Mortgages and Land in Most States

His advertisement of January 15 featured 24 properties for sale and trade. Included were town residences, farms, a blacksmith shop, store building, residential property in Cedar Rapids, and farm land in Nebraska.   The ad stated he had lands for sale in almost every state in the Union and he could help his clients “in a jiffy.”  By March the business had expanded to include mortgages at 7% and 30-year-amortization and options “on a sure thing” in Pierre, the “permanent capital of South Dakota.”  The “sure thing options” were only available “for Ten Days.”

Had he desired to do so, he could have attended the March inauguration of president-elect Benjamin Harrison.  A round-trip train ticket from Vinton to Washington, D.C. was advertised for $24.95.

The family raised part of their own food in a garden and had chickens and pigs.  It’s possible some of these animals were payment for part of his brokerage fees.  Jim advertised in the Eagle of August 20, 1889 that “two black pigs weighing 35 to 40 lbs each” had strayed from his place and offered “a suitable reward for them or their whereabouts.”  Ellen’s fruit jars for canning were available from R.H. Quinn’s Corner Grocery; Jim and Blaine’s winter clothing from A.H. Wolf of Star One-Price Clothing House; if they needed a new buggy, Frank G. Ray had them on sale for $65 to $80; and they could see Miss Nellie Walters in “Criss Cross, the greatest of all comedies” for 25¢, 35¢, or 50¢ at the Opera House.

Becomes Agent for Land in Minnesota

Jim became an Agent for a large body of land in Renville and Clara City, Minnesota in August and advertised a land excursion leaving for there on August 6.  Years later, their son Blaine became editor of Renville’s weekly newspaper.

He was advertising Benton county farms and “wild land almost anywhere else to trade for livestock” in October and November.   In January 1890 he left for Washington state with an excursion party.  The newspaper had an article about his leaving and noted he had withdrawn from the firm of J. E. Whipple & Co. But it didn’t know if he intended to move to Washington. Unfortunately, the Eagle was not microfilmed for the period March 5, 1890 to March 6, 1891 so the author does not know where the family was during that period. However, on April 21, 1891 he was running a real estate office over Brubaker’s Drug Store in Vinton when he ran a display ad featuring several properties.

The family probably attended “Sells Brothers’ Enormous United Shows” which played in Vinton June 11, 1891. The show had traveled the circuit for 20 years and featured “every notable variety of rare beasts: the tremendous pair of living hippopotami; thrilling hippodrome races; the ravishing dancing of the great Spanish artiste, Cyrene; the Wild Moorish Caravan performing the most wondrous feats of barbaric agility and strength; performing mammoths; a pair of Lilliputian cattle; a wild Australian hairless horse; and a flock of giant ostriches.”

Jim’s widowed father Lucien visited the family in September. It was his first visit to Vinton since he returned to Eugene 32 years previously.  In the interval two of his Vinton sisters, Angeline McKinley and Eliza Kearns, had died.  He was however, able to visit with brothers Cyrenius and Henry and sisters Lavina Holtz and Luana Edmonds, his 8-year-old grandson Blaine, and met many nieces and nephews for the first time.

Jim expanded the business in February 1892 by buying competitors, Grant J. Jones & Co. and the insurance business of George Newton and moved his office in with Gilchrist and Whipple, one of Vinton’s largest legal firms.  They were located over Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. Bank.  In May he advertised the “cheapest and best tornado insurance in the country” and urged farmers to insure their livestock against lighting which, his ad claimed, chased the live stock and “left it dead along side the barb wire fence.”

Takes an Active Role in Republican Politics

Jim’s political career began in June 1892 when he and J. “Pat” Murphy, editor-publisher of the Eagle, were elected to represent the third ward to the Vinton city Republican Central Committee.  He was chosen a Delegate to the County Convention where he was an Alternate to the Judicial Convention. His cousin W. P. was a Delegate to the Congressional Convention.   Jim was on the campaign trail for the fall election addressing Republican meetings at Wood’s School House in Harrison Township, Center School House in Homer Township, and Center School House in Monroe Township.  He was active in organizing a Republican Club and a member of the Committee to organize a mass meeting to be held in Cedar Rapids just before the election.  The rally, the largest in years, drew 300 people from Vinton.  Republicans broke the solid Democratic hold on county offices in November winning the offices of Auditor, Recorder, and Supervisor.

Over 8,000 people flocked to Eugene July 4 for the parade, oration, festivities, and laying of the Cornerstone for the new Tilford Collegiate Academy building.  Much of the crowd arrived on the early morning trains with one special train bringing 700.  The parade route was through downtown and ended at the Court House Square where music was provided by the Center Point Knights of Pythias Band and Professor Moody and his choir. Street amusements included a tug of war between nine man teams from Vinton and Benton county.  There were foot races, horse races, and wheelbarrow races.  The Hon. R. G. Cousins, Republican candidate for Congress 5th District, was orator and the evening concluded with a fireworks display.

Ringling Bros. Circus Plays Vinton

The Ringling Bros. Circus gave performances in Vinton August 10 at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m.  It promoted itself as “the largest, greatest, and most complete exhibition on earth” and promised a “real Roman Hippodrome, 3-ring circus, elevated stages, mighty millionaire menagerie, mammoth museum of marvels, and far famed horse fair and Equine Congress embracing 350 of the finest blooded horses in the world.”

It claimed to have the “greatest aggregation of European aerialists, gymnasts, acrobats, and riders ever exhibited in this or any other country.  It said it spent a “Princely fortune for regal wardrobes” for Caesar’s triumphal entry into Rome with warriors in glittering armor, actors courting the dramatic Muse, senators, patricians, censors, gladiators, wrestlers, jugglers, charioteers, dancers, artisans, musicians, citizens, slaves, prisoners of war – hundreds of men, women, and children combined to form “the most imposing picture of classic splendor ever conceived in the mind of man.”  In those days virtually no one missed the circus and certainly Jim attended with Ellen and Blaine.

A cold wave hit Vinton Monday January 2, 1893 with the mercury plunging to 14 below followed by a blizzard Thursday.  According to the Eagle, Ellen Whipple and her cousin-in-law W. P. Whipple were quite ill that week and confined to home.

Elected Vinton City Clerk

On January 6, C. S. Bennett announced his intention to retire as City Clerk. Jim was elected to that position January 18 by vote of six to two over W.H. Anderson.  His bond was approved and he was sworn in Friday February 3 along with cousin W. P. as City Attorney.  The following Monday the worst blizzard of the season roared into town and left huge snow drifts.  The bad weather continued for a week. Trains were late and wagon roads impassable. The newspaper said enough snow fell to last several winters.  Following the city election in March, he was reelected Clerk.

He moved his real estate-insurance business office to the City Council Room in April and continued to work both jobs using endorsement ads from insurance clients and continued to close real estate transactions. He acquired a third job in June when the Council elected him City Water Commissioner over A.D. Griffin by a vote of 5 to 3.  Guy Kellogg, a student at Tilford Academy, was hired to assist him with Clerk duties in September.

His father Lucien was killed in a railroad accident in July and Jim returned to Eugene, Indiana for the funeral.

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition

Jim undoubtedly took Ellen and Blaine to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago which ran from May 1 to Columbus day in October.  Chicago was relatively close and Vinton had good train service to the city.  Additionally, his cousin W. P., along with others, had acquired a house in Chicago which they rented out to Vintonites attending the fair.

No World’s Fair before had captured the national imagination as completely as the Columbian – the White City as it became universally known.  Over 27 million people visited – close to half of the American population.  They saw exhibits from 48 states and nations in 200 buildings on 633 acres.  An elevated electric train ran around the Fair’s perimeter.  It was the first monorail train and no future World’s Fair would be without one.

Held to celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of the New World – even though a year late –, the imperial architecture of the exposition’s pavilions, the full-scale replica of the battleship Illinois at the fair’s naval pier, and the astonishing exhibits of American advances in science, technology, and world transforming arts of mass production and merchandising, announced the approaching new century.  Inside the crowded main pavilions were the newest inventions of the day.

New Products Amazed Attendees

There were electric kitchens and electric calculating machines, Elisha Gray’ teleautograph for transmitting facsimile writing or drawings by telegraph – the early FAX machine – and Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, a peepshow device for viewing motion pictures on celluloid film.  There were demonstrations of long-distance calls over Bell telephone lines and live orchestra music transmitted over wires from New York and broadcast over a “mammoth telephone” suspended from the roof.

Giant barns, steam threshers, buildings made of ears of corn, pyramids of giant pumpkins, piles of grain, and stacks of lumber amazed the crowds. There was a Liberty Bell in the Horticultural building made of oranges and a life-sized knight made of prunes in the California building.  The Western Electric Company displayed its switches and sockets in an Egyptian temple.

People could enjoy all the benefits and conveniences of the coming age without changing their settled values and habits.  Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879 but to most farm and small town residents electricity remained mysterious.  The average American of 1893, who cooked with wood and coal and were used to horses, kerosene lamps, and hand-pumped water, could examine the new electrical devices up close and in action. The Fair demystified electricity and helped create a greater use for it.

Unforgettable Displays of Electricity

Those who stayed into the evening saw an unforgettable display of electricity in the illumination of the Court of Honor.  The palaces were “etched in light against the blackness of the night” while giant searchlights swept the basin and settled on electric fountains which shot up illuminated jets of colored water.  Electric boats strung with lines of light streaked across the waters of the lagoon like swarms of fireflies.

New products and new brands became famous.  Introduced for the first time were: fibreglass, zippers, souvenir postcards, and the first demonstration of long distance telephone service from Chicago to New York City.  National brands introduced: Chase & Sanborn, the official coffee of the Exhibition; Baker’s Chocolate, Quaker Oats, Cream of Wheat, and Aunt Jemima in person.

Imagine the expression on 10-year-old Blaine’s face when he saw the midway Ferris wheel that towered 264 feet above the ground. The Midway had displays from modern European countries to the primitive of Africa and Asia. It was a sight and experience none of the 27 million would ever forget and was not preserved for posterity as Edison’s motion picture camera was not yet invented.

TO BE CONTINUED

Launches The Journal in Cayuga, Indiana

Sometime prior to 1887 Jim worked for the Clinton Argus writing Eugene news and a column entitled “The Old JEW” (James E. Whipple).  When the Clinton Siftings ceased publication in May 1887 Jim purchased its equipment and type and founded the Cayuga Journal in Cayuga, Indiana on May 14, 1887 with John Wigley as typesetter and financial help from H.O. Peters, his former employer.

The Cayuga Journal was a six column paper with pages one and four boilerplate and pages two and three hand set type of local news items and advertising.  It was published on Saturdays.  As editor-publisher, Jim said the paper would be “independent in all things and neutral in nothing.”  He included a number of opinion columns in the initial issue including:

“We expect to make the Cayuga Journal a purely
local paper devoted to the interests of Cayuga, Eu-
gene, and the surrounding country.   Partisan opinions
will not be allowed to enter its columns, although the
editor’s devotion to his Party is as firm as ever, and
personally he will work for the success of that Party.

We invite short, spicy locals from contributors, but
long-winded articles from verbose contributors to
be assigned to the privacy of the waste basket.   In
short, we intend to make a first class local paper.

We will be greatly pleased to receive the approba-
tion of the public, and if you can give us a certifi-
cate of approbation in the shape of a one dollar bill
we will be still greater pleased and will also send
you the Journal for one year.

WHAT THE JOURNAL WOULD LIKE TO SEE

A carriage factory at Cayuga.  A paper mill at Cay-
uga.  A canning factory at Cayuga.   A Union Depot.
The narrow-gauge railroad changed to a standard
gauge.  Two-thousand cash subscribers to the Journal.

If you want your town to improve, improve it.  If you
want to make your town lively, make it.  Don’t go to
sleep, but wake up and work for it.  Push.  Get in,
advertise it, talk about it, and talk favorably.  If
you have any property, improve it.  Paint your
houses, clean up your back yards.  Make your
surroundings pleasant, and you will feel better
and your property will be worth more dollars in the
market.

The following comment in the original issue must have been the motivating factor to begin the newspaper:

More building is now going on in Cayuga and Eugene
than in all the other towns in the county.  It shows
conclusively that this is soon to be the leading place
in the county.  In Eugene, Dr. Kinderman is build-
ing a large and commodious barn.  H.D. Sprague is
adding another story to his building.  Dan Sollars
erected a new dwelling and Albert Fultz just finish-
ed a new house.   Six new buildings are under con-
struction in Cayuga with plans for 50 buildings to be
built during the summer.

Advertisers In the First Issue

Advertisers in the first issue: Dr. W.D. Paterson.  Dealer in drugs, patent medicines, druggist sundries, paints and oils, dye stuffs, fancy articles and brushes, Prescriptions carefully compounded Day or Night.” C.W. Simpson. Pure whiskey, brandies, cigars and tobacco, and fresh Milwaukee beer.  The Eugene Milling Company.   High grade Fuller Roller process flour.  Nixon & Cates.   Agents for Empire Binders, Droppers, Mowers, and Advance Threshers and Engines.  Cayuga’s Junction Hotel.  Boarding by the week, day, or meal.  H.O. Peters was “Giving away 500 Palm Leaf Fans” as a promotion to induce customers to shop at his store; Watson and Fultz.  Hardware, jewelry, furniture, and implements.”  Their line of implements included “The celebrated Wood Binder and Mower, Hoosier Grain Drills, Chieftain Sulky Rakes, Evans Harrower, The Snyder Farm Wagons, John Deere, Grand Des Tour and Perue City Breaking Plows and Cultivators.

Peters of Eugene also advertised “cheese cloths, 5c; muslin, 5c; gingham, 8 1/3 to 12 1/2c; white dress goods, 8 1/2, 10, 12, & 15c; kid walking shoes, 75c, $1 & $1.50; straw hats for men and boys in spring styles in still and crush hats, $1, $1.25, & $2; canned corn, 10, 12 1/2, & 15c; 4 cans of California peaches, $1.  His ad proclaimed: “We can and will sell goods as cheap as any place for the money.  We pay no rents, buy goods in large quantities for two stores and pay cash for them, and offer credit to customers.  When you have a dollar to spend, don’t think I don’t know it.  We will appreciate your cash too.  Country Produce Taken In Exchange For Goods.”

Despite Jim’s high hopes and optimism the merchants of Cayuga and Eugene were not yet ready to support a newspaper and he ceased publication seven months later (December 1887).  He resumed publication the following spring but soon gave it up again.

Launches The Journal in Sidell, Illinois

Ever the entrepreneur, at age 30 he moved his 29-year-old wife and 5-year-old son to Sidell, Illinois and began publishing another weekly newspaper.  Sidell was a small town just over the county line in Vermilion county.  A number of Sidell’s prominent men including the Honorable John Sidell, Postmaster J.G. Clark, Star Mill owner J.W. Orr, farm machinery dealer C.W. Forbes, dry goods and grocery merchant J.L. Jackson, and others promised him their support.  He rented space in the depot building and printed the paper on a Washington Hand Press.

The first issue of the Sidell Journal was distributed to homes and businesses in town and surrounding area on May 26, 1888.  It was an 8-page folio which included ready print out of Chicago and local news and advertising.  It was politically non partisan.  Locals credited the newspaper as a chief reason for the town’s growth.  However, for reasons unknown to the author, Jim sold the paper three months later to Charles A. Wright of Sidell and moved his family to Vinton, Iowa, the place of his birth.

New Methodist Church Includes Cornerstone

On July 28, 1888, the Sidell Methodists began builting a new church and Jim placed a hand-written letter in the Cornerstone with information on the founding of the Journal and personal family details.  The letter ended with a request it be given to his nearest relative when the cornerstone was opened 100 years later.  The Church was destroyed by fire in the mid 1980s and when the Cornerstone was opened, all items emerged intact. Jim’s letter was printed in the county Genealogical Society’s quarterly publication in the hope of locating a descendant.  When there was no response it was placed in the Church’s new Cornerstone.  Bill D. Palmer, Chair of the Cornerstone Committee, photocopied the letter in case a descendant might eventually appear.

In 1985 the author wrote to Lucile McDowell, librarian of the Sidell District library, seeking information on his grandfather and was informed about his 1888 letter and put in contact with Mr. Palmer who sent the author a copy whose contents follow.

Jim’s Letter Placed In the Cornerstone

Sidell, Ill. July 28, 1888. To Whom It May Concern:

Knowing that when this is read after having been
placed in the corner stone of the M.E. Church today,
I shall have passed from this world.  I hereby give a
short sketch of the Sidell Journal and of myself.
The Journal was established in May of this year
and the first number issued on the 26th day of that
month, as a non-partisan paper.  It was established
through inducements offered me by the Hon. John
Sidell, C.W. Forbes, J.W. Orr, Postmaster, and others.

My birth occurred on the 3rd day of Sept. 1867 (mak-
ing me now nearly 31 years of age) near Vinton,
Benton Co., Iowa.  My parents removed to their
old home at Eugene, Vemillion Co., Ind. in the fall
of 1859.  My father served three years in (the Civil
War) Co. K, 6th Ind. Cavalry, coming home as Q.M.
Sergt.   He commanded this Company on the
memorable Stoneman Raid, sometimes known
as the Macon (Ga.) Raid.

We lived in Kansas near Paola, from 1868 to 1870
when we returned to Eugene.  In 1872 I went into
a drug store and clerked most of the time until 1882.

Was married to Ellen Thompson at Georgetown, Ill.,
April 7th1881.  Have one child, (a boy) born June 22,
1883, whose name is Lucien Blaine Whipple.  Was
bookkeeper, Insurance agent, and Notary Public
several years.  Was elected a Justice of the Peace
1884.  Established the Cayuga (Ind.) Journal May
14th 1887, which I run one year.

My father’s name is Lucien R., the son of Enoch,
who was the son of Aimiah, who was a brother of
William and Abraham Whipple, both of whom
were prominent officers in the Revolutionary War,
the former being a signer of the Declaration
of Independence and a General in the Army and
the latter a Commodore in the Navy.

Whoever finds this will confer a favor by sending
it to my nearest relative. /s/ James E. Whipple

Jim’s Relative Includes Signer of the Declaration of  Independence

Jim, like many people today with Whipple as a surname, proudly claim a close relationship to General William Whipple, a New Hampshire signer of the Declaration of Independence.   Unlike most, he didn’t claim to be a direct descendant, only a great grand nephew.  General Whipple’s only child, a son, died at age 1 so he has no descendants.

Jim is, however, a distant cousin as both descend from Matthew Whipple (1560-1618), Clothier of Bocking, Essex county, England through his two sons Matthew, Jr. and John who settled in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts in 1638.  Jim was a great (7) grandson of Matthew through his son Matthew, and William was a great (2) grandson of Matthew through his son John.  Jim’s claim to be a great grand nephew of Commodore Abraham Whipple was also incorrect.  The Commodore descended from a different line of Whipples – Capt. John Whipple who settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1632 and later moved to Providence, Rhode Island.  Commodore Whipple has no descendants bearing the Whipple name as his only son died a bachelor.  He does have descendants through his daughters.  Jim identified his great grandfather as Amiah.  His name is Nehemiah Whipple.

TO BE CONTINUED AS THE FAMILY RETURNS TO JIM’S IOWA BIRTHPLACE

Those who don’t share the heritage will find 15 Generations of Whipples a fascinating read.  Jean Foster Kelley CG, Library Director, MoSGA Journal, XXX, No. 3,2010

His middle name honors his mother’s father, Ezekiel Sheward of Eugene, Vermillion County, Indiana.  Lucien moved the family back to Eugene in the fall of 1859 where their five children were raised.

Born During the Panic of 1857, the first world-wide Recession

Jim was born just after the outbreak of the Panic of 1857 which began August 24, 1857 and was one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history up to that time.  Grain prices fell, railroads over-built and defaulted on debts, and banks collapsed.  The Panic had parallels in Europe, South America, South Africa, and the Far East and was the first world-wide economic crisis.

His early years spanned the Civil War and he and his siblings were without a father for the approximately 34 months Lucien was in the Union Army. He was about a month shy of 5 when his father was mustered into the 71st Indiana Infantry (later Indiana 6th Cavalry) and approximately two months shy of 8 when the war ended and his father returned home. It must have been trying on his mother Sarah raising children, the oldest 5 by herself.  Fortunately, her parents and 12 siblings lived in the Eugene area and were probably of great help.  Jim and his brother Ed attended Eugene Sunday School with some of their Sheward cousins.

The Family Moves to Kansas to Begin Farming

When he was 12 (early 1869), the family moved to Middle Creek Township in Miami County, Kansas where his father took up farming.  During that two-year period he and Ed became productive farm hands and were of major help to their father.  After their second crop, which was significantly less than their initial crop, the family quit the Kansas farm and returned to Eugene.

At 15 (1872), Jim began clerking in a drug store at nearby Bethel, Illinois.  At that time, only drugs, patent medicines, and toilet articles were sold.  Behind the prescription counter were rows of white medicine jars with their mystical inscriptions.  Cosmetics were not an important product.  Rice powder and rouge was the limit for most self-respecting ladies.  The tall glass bottles filled with red and green liquids in the window were as orthodox a sign for drug stores as was the striped pole for a barbershop.

At the front of the store was the soda fountain.  Most were made of onyx, marble, metal, and glass with silver-plate spigots, Grecian columns, and miniature statutes of scantily-clad goddesses.  The name soda jerk came from jerking the fountain handles forward to make the soda water spray.  Standard flavors were chocolate, lemon, and sarsaparilla along with less common delights liked almond, claret, and wintergreen.  There were no sandwiches, ice cream, or fruit mixtures.  The first innovations were milk shakes and egg phosphates and from this humble beginning the repertoire of the later soda fountains, reaching nearly the length of the store, evolved.

He returned to Eugene in 1882 where he was a bookkeeper for H. O. Peters and a Notary Public.  At that time Eugene was the smallest town in the county in both population and land area. but not in personal property valuation.  The Township included 33 square miles with a population of 1,340, and a personal property valuation of $680,870.  The latter exceeded that of nearby Clinton with a population of 3,000 and a valuation of $643,675.  The county’s two main agricultural crops were corn and wheat and this prompted him to become a grain dealer.  He later added insurance to his business and sold crop and hail policies.

Marries Ellen Thompson

While in Bethel he began courting Ellen Thompson who lived in Ridgefarm, Vermilion County, Illinois.   She was born January 7, 1859 in Ellwood Township. Their marriage licence was issued 5 April 1881 at the Court House in Danville, the County Seat.  He was 23, Ellen was 21. They were married in Georgetown two days later at the home of Mr. Joseph Bailey.  The Danville Weekly News of April 15 referred to James as “esquire.”  It  described the wedding as an elopement, writing that “Rev. Joseph Long is responsible for the elopement.”  The article noted that “The couple left immediately for Eugene.”

They were probably back in Danville on May 16 to see The GREAT FOREPAUGH SHOW, a 2-ring circus featuring 20 trained elephants “including two woolly elephants never before exhibited.” Also featured in this “GREATEST, GRANDEST PAGEANT” was “Zuila, the female Blondin (tightrope walker) wheeling her baby across a 3/4 inch wire 100 feet in mid air riding a Velocipede and crossing blindfolded the same high wire.”

Ellen’s parents, John, 33, and Rebbecca, 28, Thompson with daughters Mary, 4, and Margaret, 1, were living in Vermilion County according to the 1850 federal census of Illinois.   They were in Ellwood Township with Ridgefarm as their Post Office in 1860. Three more daughters and a son had been born by the then: Martha, 7, Mahala, 5, Malissa, 1, (this would be Ellen) and Jacob, 7 months.  Malissa was known as Ellen throughout her adult years.  She was identified as Ellen M. in the 1910 Iowa federal census.

A Son, Lucien Blaine, Born In Eugene June 22, 1883

Jim and Ellen’s only child, Lucien Blaine, was born in Eugene June 22, 1883. He was always known as Blaine.  Jim was elected Justice of the Peace of Eugene in 1884 and served as Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for a short time. He was Assistant Treasurer of the Eugene Joint Stock Fair Association which was organized in1886.  He was also Secretary of the Cayuga (Ind.) Building and Loan Association.  A Total Abstinence Society was organized in February 1886 with Jim as Secretary and his father Lucien Vice President.  Members were known as “reformed roosters,” indicating they must have previously imbibed.   He was Secretary of the Eugene Decoration Day Committee (same as Memorial Day today) and served on its Music Committee.

When Jim and Ellen were married there were no chain grocery stores with smart packaged goods or cases for frozen foods and cooled drinks and refrigerated items and in-store bakeries and large produce and meat sections and all the other items we associate today with the super market.

Description of Grocery Stores In the Late 1880s

The grocery store Ellen and Jim patronized had long narrow rooms with counters on both sides with wooden bins behind the counters. Everything sold in bulk was in bins:  tea, coffee, dried peaches, beans, rice, dried peas, cornmeal, flour, prunes, oatmeal, dried apples, etc.  Salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmegs were kept in smaller receptacles.  In front of the counter was an open row of tubs or kegs, tipped forward for easy access, with butter, pickles, salt mackerel, fine cut chewing tobacco, etc.  Cracker barrels were at the back of the store along with a huge barrel stove and a high desk where the grocer kept his accounts.   At the end of the long counter, in a cage of fine wire netting, was high American cheese.  On shelves near the front window were rows of glass canisters with tin covers containing stick candy, stick licorice, peppermint candies, chocolate drops, and gum drops.

Each purchase involved a distinct operation. A sheet of paper was laid on a scale and a scoop was used to move whatever was being purchased onto the scale pan, wrapped, and tied with a string.  If the product was dried peaches, crackers or loaf sugar, the grocer used his hands, grabbing a handful from the bin and dropping them in the pan, more and more slowly, until the desired weight was reached.  Pickles, butter, and other moist products were ladled into a small wooden boat, a piece of thin paper stuck on top, and wrapped like the rest.  Molasses and vinegar were drawn into the customer’s own brown jugs and plugged with a corn cob; light brown for vinegar, dark for molasses. The barrels were easily recognized by the flies that covered the gallon measure which stood beneath the spigot of the molasses barrel.  There were a few canned goods of unknown origin but Ellen would have felt disgraced using them as they were emergency rations, a sign her larder was empty.

Meat Sold In Butcher Shop, not Stores

Meat was sold separate from the general store and came from slaughter houses on the edge of town.  Sides of beef, pork, and mutton were delivered to the butcher who dressed it and made his own sausage.  Prices included a prime rib roast selling for 10¢ a pound.  Neither Jim or Ellen probably ever saw a lobster or an oyster on the half shell.  Oysters came in square tin boxes, small but excellent for stews, and were the mainstay of church suppers in winter.

Steak was pounded on a board with a mallet to make it tender.  Oatmeal and beans were soaked overnight, cabbage slaw was chopped in a huge wooden bowl with a chopping knife, and butter and milk were hung down the well to keep them cool.  Chickens had to be plucked and cleaned before they could be cooked.  There was no baking powder so biscuits were raised with saleratus mixed with vinegar.  There was no granulated sugar and coffee was bought green and roasted in a dripping pan.

The Housewife’s Daily Chores

Chores filled Ellen’s waking hours and included washing clothes, making beds, emptying the slops, cooking, cleaning, mending, darning, and baking. Today’s housewife would not believe the energy Ellen exerted in lifting scuttles of coal, buckets of water, iron pots, and kettles. Clothes were washed with soap, water, and elbow grease; dishes with a rag; floors with a mop or scrubbing brush; and furniture was dusted with a cloth or turkey wing.   Washday was frequently distinguished by a peculiar odor of soap mixed with cabbage – the hot fire to boil the clothes was also used to prepare a boiled dinner.

Life was routine.  People rose with the sun and retired with its setting.  Breakfast was at 6:30 or 7.   Even professional men and proprietors were in their offices or stores before 8.  All went home to a noon dinner.  Supper was at 6:30.  Entertainment began by 8 or earlier.  For the early hours after dark they used a saucer of lard oil with a cotton flannel wick, a device almost identical with Roman lamps dug up at Pompeii.  Wives made candles, dipping them or shaping them in molds, which produced less than one candlepower of light.  Eventually the store sold better candles and sticks to hold them and chimneys to protect the flickering flame.  After kerosene arrived lamps and lamp chimneys improved.  Then came the Argand Burner with circular wick from which evolved the student lamp that gave a steadier and clearer light.  Study, work, and social life were limited by the short radius of light.

Games were played at parties and simple refreshments were served.  Euchre and cinque (high five) were the popular card games.  It was the era of family life.  Young people brought their friends home for taffy-pulls, coasting and skating parties, straw rides, etc.  Men played draw poker in the back rooms of saloons.

Before 1890, Houses Were Designed by Carpenters

There were no architects until the 1890s and houses were designed by the carpenters who built them.  Most were story and a half with parlor, sitting room, dining room, and kitchen.  Instead of a serving pantry usually there was a large store room off the kitchen called the buttery.  There was either a small side or front porch as this was the transition between the porch-less houses of the pioneers who didn’t have time to sit on them and the age of greater leisure.  Central heating was a novelty and upstairs rooms were unheated.  Dressing in cold rooms was not considered a hardship.  Fuel was hard wood and soft coal until the railroad brought anthracite and a hard coal base burner became the chief heating plant and a register in the ceiling allowed some heat to the chamber above.

TO BE CONTINUED

For reasons unknown to the author, the Whipples returned to Eugene after only two years in Kansas. They more than doubled the purchase price of their farm, which they sold to Rosa Chrisman for $800.00 on September 1, 1870.

Lute purchased a home in Eugene from F. B. Ragland for $350.00 on January 3, 1871. He did resume farming and became a Patent Right Agent and followed many lines of work until retiring in the late 1890s. How the family was impacted by the depression that began in 1873 is unknown.

He was employed in 1873 to help build the Eugene covered bridge which still stands today.  He conducted the Eugene Federal Census in 1880, ran a meat market in 1894, and was named Town Marshal in 1895. When the town voted to dissolve its corporate entity March 28, 1896, his law enforcement career ended. He also participated in home talent plays and was in the cast of American Born presented by the Alexander Dramatic Combination in February 1885. Admission was 15 cents for children, 25 cents for adults, and 35 cents for a reserved front seat. Proceeds were to benefit the Eugene Brass Band.

He was one of the organizers and the first Vice President of the Total Abstinence Society, dubbed the Reformed Roosters, organized in February 1886. His son Jim was the Society’s first Secretary.   He was also an organizer of the Eugene Chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and elected its Colonel.  The Whipple School was built in 1881 on land he owned. Between 1881 and 1909, it had 13 teachers, including his granddaughter Clara Fultz who taught the 1911-12 school year. In the fall of 1909 only the first five grades were taught and it was closed in 1920 and the building was advertised for sale in 1923.

Most of Lute and Sarah’s  Life was Lived on the Frontier

Most of Lute and Sarah’s early life had been spent on what was known as the frontier — Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Kansas. Ten years after the family returned to Indiana from Kansas, the frontier was closed. Through1870, the Census Bureau designated it a frontier but concluded in 1880 that so many isolated settlements existed in the “unsettled area,” it could not determine where the frontier was and eliminated the designation.

Continental boundaries varied little between 1801 and 1865. In 1865, only a few settlements existed between the Mississippi Valley and California and Oregon – the Mormons in Utah and a few pioneers around Santa Fe, New Mexico being the exception.

Frontier Settled by Miners, Ranchers, Farmers

From 1860 through the early 1880s, every effort was made to encourage immigration.  The great prairies between Kansas and Nebraska and the Rocky Mountains, sometimes called The Great American Desert, had been considered unsuitable for settlement.  But this last frontier was settled by three successive groups – miners, ranchers, and farmers – and they settled more land in 30 years than was settled in 250 years on the eastern seaboard. The Homestead Act of 1862 had much to do with this influx as did the expansion of railroads, improved communications, and new inventions and processes that made it possible to farm where no crop had ever been raised. A product of all this migration was the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, dedicated by President Grover Cleveland October 28, 1886.

Lute was 35 when the golden spike went into the last tie connecting the  transcontinental railroad from Omaha to San Francisco at Promontory, Utah May 10, 1869.  It was considered the greatest engineering feat of the nineteenth century.

The Union, held together by the Civil War, was now tied together East and West.  It could happen only in the U.S. where there was enough unused land owned by the federal government, enough credit to induce capitalists to build the lines, and enough energy, labor, and imagination to complete the task.

The Buffalo Disappeared During Their Lifetime

The buffalo disappeared during Lute and Sarah’s lifetime. When the family moved to Kansas, there were about 15 million bison west of the Mississippi river. By 1875 the entire southern herd had been destroyed and the northern herd was gone in another 10 years. Some of the greatest changes in the United States also occurred:  slavery was abolished, electricity was put to use, the telephone was developed, and the telegraph system was completed.

The country was evolving.  The economy became continent wide. People, food, coal, and minerals moved wherever someone wanted to send them, cheaply and quickly.   A national stock market was organized.  Melvil Dewey helped organize the American Library Association and established the book classification system that bears his name – an indicator of growing professionalism and systematic order in the basic approach to knowledge. Samuel Clemens, writing under the name Mark Twain, published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, an indicator of cultural shifts coming to the country.

Edison’s Inventions Made Life Easier and More Pleasant

Thomas Alva Edison, one of the greatest inventors of all time, developed the many products that made the world an easier, more pleasant, and better place to live:  the phonograph, 1877, Edison’s favorite invention; the carbon telephone transmitter, 1878 which made telephony a commercial art; the microphone, 1878, which is essential to radio, television, recording, and public speaking; the incandescent lamp which bathed the globe in a new brilliance, 1879; motion pictures, 1894, which revolutionized the entertainment industry; an alkaline storage battery; a machine for quadruplex and sextuplex telegraphic transmission, 1876-79; many appliances; and improvements for the transmission of electric light, heat, and power.

His Edison Illuminating Co. switched on lights in the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Times, New York Herald, and other buildings in lower Manhattan on September 4, 1882.  By 1883, the birth year of Lute and Sarah’s grandson Lucien Blaine Whipple, Edison had 246 plants making electricity for 61,000 lamps.  They were probably amazed when they read about the Centennial held in Philadelphia in 1876 where Americans compared their achievements with older nations.   It featured exhibits of arts and culture; inventions to improve agriculture, transportation, and machinery; displays of drills, mowers, and reapers, of lumber wagons and Pullman sleeping cars, of sewing machines and typewriters, of planes, lathes, and looms.

New Activities Became Commonplace and Enhanced Life

Activities that were unimaginable before the Civil War became commonplace.  Travel from New York to San Francisco which took months and cost more than $1,000 now took a week and a first class ticket cost $150, $70 for emigrants.  Freight rates dropped dramatically, mail that costs dollars per ounce and with uncertain delivery dates was handled for pennies and got from Chicago to San Francisco in a few days. The telegraph moved thoughts, ideas, statistics – anything that could be put on paper – almost instantly; not only from New York to San Francisco but to Europe, England, and anywhere there was a telegraph station.

By 1876 the intense animosities of the Civil War had receded leading to sectional reconciliation.   Americans now looked for ways to promote their restored unity.  Because 1876 was one hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence it was the nation’s centennial and virtually all state and local governments held festivals and ceremonies throughout the year.  The most prominent event was the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Election of 1876 Decided by Electoral College, Not Popular Vote

The big political event of 1876 was the deadlocked presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. Tilden won a clear majority of the popular vote but the electoral vote with 20 disputed ballots was close. Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana sent double sets of results, one favoring each candidate. Deadlock ensued causing a serious Constitutional crisis which caused Congress to establish a special Electoral Commission to make the decision.  After months of wrangling the Commission voted eight to seven on the eve of inauguration day to award all 20 contested votes to Hayes.  The result was a one vote victory for Hayes who then promptly recognized the election of Democrats in the three states whose Republican electoral votes had just made him President.

Songs that gained prominence during these years included Dixie (1859), Drummer Boy of Shilo (1862), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1863), Tenting on the Old Camp Ground (1864), one of the most pathetic of the war-time ballads, and Marching Through Georgia (1865).

While the popular songs from 1860-65 concentrated on the war and campaign songs for Lincoln to the tunes of both Yankee Doodle and Old Dan Tucker, others such as Killarney (1862), The Day Is Done, and Beautiful Dreamer (1864), and The Little Brown Church in the Vale (1865) were big hits.

Popular Post War Songs

The post-war period is remembered for When You and I Were Young, Maggie (1866), We’re Marching to Zion, and Blue Danube Waltz (1867).  The big hits of 1868 were Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still and Tales of the Vienna Woods.  Sweet Genevieve was a big hit in 1869 along with The Little Brown Jug and Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me.

The 1871 concert tour of the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Nashville’s Fisk University made America aware of the simple beauty of the Negro spirituals. Deep River; Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; Steal Away; Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child; Nobody Knows de Trouble I’ve Seen; Standin’ in de Need of Prayer; and By and By are just a few of the spirituals from that time that have become an integral part of American music.

Good-bye Liza Jane and Reuben and Rachel came out in 1871 and Silver Threads Among the Gold was one of the most popular songs of 1873, selling over two million copies. I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen came out in 1876 and In the Gloaming was one of the more important songs of 1877. James A. Bland, a black man, wrote Carry Me Back to Old Virginny in 1879. He also wrote In the Evening by the Moonlight and Oh, dem Golden Slippers. Home on the Range and Frankie and Johnnie were published in the late 1870s and School Days in 1885.

Luate’s Application for a Civil War Pension Denied in 1879

Lute first applied for a Civil War pension in 1879 at age 45.   His application number was 240,559.  A search of his service records failed to find evidence of a disability while on active duty and his request was denied.  In 1890 Congress passed a Dependent Veterans’ Pension bill which doubled the number of pensioners within four years.  The law provided that veterans (and their widows) who served at least 90 days and who had physical or mental disability (regardless of cause) were entitled to a pension, if they had no other source of support.   Lute was awarded a pension of $4.00 a month in June of 1880. It was raised to $6.00 in 1889, and $12.00 in 1890. Apparently his rheumatism had progressed to such a degree that he could no longer work.

Sarah Dies of Paralysis at Age 59

Sarah died in Eugene the last day of June 1898. She lived 59 years-three months-five days.  Her death occurred a short time after she was stricken with paralysis and son Jim was unable to get from Iowa to Eugene before her death.  It is presumed she was buried in the Eugene Cemetery but is not in the cemetery records and there is no marker with her name on any lot.

There is no evidence that Sarah was unhappy with women’s position in life or that she was a follower of the women’s movement and their Declaration of Rights for women issued July 4, 1876.  She was three months shy of her 41st birthday when Articles of Impeachment, arraigning the United States government for violating its own fundamental principles, were presented to Presideny Grant during the Philadelphia Exposition.   The women’s declaration commemorated the nation’s birth and read the Declaration of Independence to a host of foreign dignitaries.

Women participants protested calling the Centennial a celebration of the independence of the people “while one-half of the people are still subjects – still political slaves.”  They were echoing the 1869 charge by John Stuart Mill in his The Subjection of Women that “marriage is the only actual bondage known to our law.  There remain no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house.”

Lute’s Cousin, Susan Anthony, Was A Leader for Women’s Rights

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, a Whipple descendant, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, angry that such an event should be held in honor of Independence while women were denied the vote, drafted the impeachment document.  Its Articles charged the government with introducing the word “male” into state constitutions; making sex a crime; holding the writ of habeas corpus inoperative by allowing the rights of a husband to subsume the rights of his wife; denying women a right of trial by a jury of their peers; taxing women without representation; allowing unequal codes for men and women (the double standard); denying women’s right of self-government; establishing an aristocracy of sex more despotic than monarchy; and failing to render judicial decisions consonant with the spirit and letter of the Constitution.  Even if  Sarah was not active in the women’s movement, she probably would have supported their goals.

Lute Killed in Train Accident in May 1904

Lute met an untimely death six years after Sarah. On May 13, 1904 he took the early morning train to Newport, arriving at 4:18 a.m.  Finishing his business early and not wanting to wait for the afternoon train, he got a buggy ride with Tip Dallas to the Dallas home, three-fourths of a mile from where he was fatally injured.  He was found alive but unconscious about noon near Walnut Grove by a freight crew of the C. & I. E. Line.   They took him to Newport where he died shortly afterward.  He was 70-years-three-months-seven-days old.

No one saw the accident but it was presumed he had been struck by a train. The top of his head was badly bruised against a fence post and a lock of his hair was found fastened to the post.  He was bruised in the right groin, his breeches were torn at the knee with axle-grease on them, and his neck was broken.

In its obituary, the Herald of Cayuga wrote “Col. Whipple had been a familiar figure in this county for many years and his jovial manner and generous heart made him many friends who will keenly regret to hear of his very unfortunate death.  Three of his five children survive him — James E. of Vinton, Iowa and Frank M. and Mrs. W.W. (Anna) Fultz of Eugene.  His funeral was held Sunday May 15 at the home of his son Frank.  It was attended by a large number of friends from the north end of Vermillion county.  “The old soldiers turned out in a body and escorted the funeral party to the Eugene Cemetery where Col. Whipple’s remains were laid to rest under the Stars and Stripes which he so nobly defended in life.”

Son Jim described his father “as an unusual man” in the Vinton Review of May 17, 1904.   “He possessed a strong, active, and vigorous body and an alert and active mind. He saw only the bright side of things and was an optimist of the most pronounced type.  He was a humorist through and through and of a very unusual and original sort.  He was loyal to his friends and never failed to give a fair, open, and vigorous fight to his enemies.

“His late years [were] spent quietly enjoying the rewards of his neighbors, the companionship of a number of old Army comrades, and the love of his children and grandchildren, the latter of whom always considered “grand-dad’ their side partner and special champion.”  Lute lived during the administration of 18 U.S. presidents beginning with Andrew Jackson and ending with Theodore Roosevelt.

NEXT. MAJOR JAMES E. AND ELLEN (THOMPSON) WHIPPLE

The sheer magnitude of your research is staggering. I too have done family history work (since I was in high school), and I know how the passion for family information can become all-consuming.

You can take comfort in knowing that you are leaving an irreplaceable gift for your family.

James Reinhardt, San Francisco, 12-27-12

Whipple wanted youth to view meteors and comets during the International Geophysical Year (July 1957-December 1958) and student amateurs participated alongside “tens of thousands of professional scientists from sixty-seven nations staffing hundreds of stations around the globe.”  Moonwatch said: “Keep Watching the Skies” and Whipple’s network was ideal for tracking the Soviet hardware and for satellite spotting. The students reported their sightings to the SAO, which then computed the orbital data.

Considered One Of The Largest Scientific Activities

Identified as “probably the largest single scientific undertaking in history,” by the website nationmaster.com, this network of amateur scientists and other interested citizens played a critical role in providing crucial information regarding the world’s first satellites until professionally-manned optical tracking stations came on-line in 1958,

“Whipple saw the opportunity,” said “Moonwatch: Keep Watching the Skies. “If the Americans and Soviets were going to launch the world’s first satellites, someone, he reasoned, would have to track and photograph them.”

Whipple’s Network Had Cameras on Six Continents

A June 11, 1963, SAO press release stated that Whipple’s network of a dozen cameras on six continents “photographed more than 60,000 satellite transits.” A Baker-Nunn camera, according to the June 30, 1963 Boston Sunday Globe, could track “objects 1000 times dimmer than the human eye can see. In a successful test the instrument showed the ability to track a shiny 30-calibre bullet in the skies over New York City.”

The New Mexico Museum of Space History displays two Operation Moonwatch telescopes, which were used in Alamogordo. A family whose father had died was sorting through his mementos and discovered the instruments and donated them.

Retired Air Force Master Sgt. Tom Rich, of Alamogordo, participated in Moonwatch while at Clackamas High School, Oregon. He said each scope covered a 15-degree area of the sky, and that they had enough viewing instruments to watch the entire night sky.

Sputnik Viewed at Four Consecutive Revolutions

“When Sputnik went by,” Rich said, “whoever had it in their telescopes knew the stars there and drew it on their map. At dusk, we saw it going over the far horizon. We did catch it at four consecutive revolutions around the Earth.”

As the satellite moved between known stars, Rich said a stopwatch helped them calculate the satellite’s speed. He and his fellow amateurs, from schools throughout the area, persevered in the “chilly nights” of northern Oregon in October. Their work earned them national attention: Life magazine published their pictures. They were recognized on Russian radio and were awarded a free trip to a space symposium in San Francisco.

A Solar System Expert; Asteroid Named for Whipple

Whipple, in his 97 years, became an expert on the solar system. He was one of the first to discern that stars other than our Sun emit radio waves; six comets he discovered bear his name; and, the asteroid Whipple was named for him.

“But it was his work on the icy conglomerate model for comets that is regarded as the highlight of his distinguished career,” according to his obituary on bbc.co.uk.

Whipple published a paper in 1950, that countered the accepted theory of comets being nothing more than flying particles loosely held together. Bbbc.co.uk wrote in 1986 that “the Giotto Mission came close enough to Halley’s Comet to photograph its nucleus, (and) it looked the way Whipple described it 36 years before.” By then, the media had dubbed comets dirty snowball.

As a child, Whipple had hoped to play professional tennis. Then, polio struck.  He found his new passion when he took a high school astronomy course.

Played a Major Role in the Development of Radar in WWII

As a graduate student, he helped map the orbit of the newly discovered Pluto. In 1931, he joined the Harvard Observatory and during World War II was project director at the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development’s Radio Research Laboratory. A biography in the New Mexico Museum of Space History Archives said he guided “the development of ‘Window,’ the Confusion Reflectors which helped Allied bombers penetrate the German radar screens.” According to Amazing-space.stsci.edu, his device sliced “shreds of aluminum that, when dropped from planes, confused German radar.”

“Air Force wits dubbed him the ‘Chief of Chaff,”’ bbc.co.uk said.

From 1949-56, he chaired Harvard’s astronomy department. At the same time he worked on meteor photography while doing upper atmospheric research, as director of the U.S. Navy Ordnance Bureau.

Wins President’s Award for Distinguished Public Service

Whipple joined the SAO in 1955, and “built the moribund group he inherited into one of the leading scientific organizations of the world,” wrote Dr. Donald Menzel in the foreword to The Collected Contributions of Fred L. Whipple. Eight years later, President John F. Kennedy honored Whipple with the President’s Award for Distinguished Public Service.

In 1981, the Smithsonian named its observatory in Mount Hopkins, Arizona, the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, “in recognition of a distinguished American astronomer,” Sky and Telescope magazine reported in December of that year.

Whipple had directed the facility’s development and construction. He was also “pivotal in initiating the development of the revolutionary Multiple Mirror Telescope, which now operates successfully on that mountain.”

When Whipple was 92, NASA named him to the Comet Nucleus Probe mission. The license plate on his car read “COMETS.”

This article was written by Michael Shinaberry and published under the title Moonwatch spies on more than lunar sights.  Alamogordo Daily News, 11-10-12

Reprinted with permission of Michael Shinabery, education specialist and humanities scholar with the New Mexico Museum of Space History at Alamogordo, NM 88311-5430.

Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was among the most radical and anti-southern members of Congress.  He opposed all of Lincoln’s and Johnson’s measures to deal leniently with the former Confederacy.  On February 24, 1868, he asked the House to remove Johnson from office, calling him a “great political malefactor.”  The House drew up 11 Articles of Impeachment, nine about the Tenure of Office Act, one condemning the President’s speeches, and one an omnibus denunciation.  His trial by the Senate ended May 16 with a 35 to19 vote for conviction, one short of the necessary two-thirds majority.  Seven Republican senators voted for acquittal because they believed party politics, not impeachable offenses, motivated the trial.
General Ulysses Grant Elected President

Lute undoubtedly voted for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant for President in 1868.  Grant wasn’t associated with either the Party’s radical element or with Johnson and was perceived to be a symbol of reconciliation.  Horatio Seymour, wartime Governor of New York, was the Democratic nominee.  The Republican campaign claimed their Party won the war and saved the Union and that a Democratic victory would undo the peace.  Grant carried 26 states to eight for Seymour.  The popular vote was three million to 2.7 million.

The hope of greater economic opportunities led Lute to consider a return to Iowa where his brother Cyrenius had achieved great success as a farmer.  Vinton property was purchased in July 1866.  However, the family didn’t move as evidenced by sons Jim and Ed membership in Eugene’s Joint (Presbyterians and Methodists) Sunday School as of December 2, 1866.

Cheap Land Motivates Move to Kansas

Eventually cheap land in Kansas lured the family to Middle Creek Township in Miami county where  Lute bought a 40-acre farm in December 1868.  It appears he preceded his family to Kansas as Sarah is not listed on the deed and his address is listed as Miami county.  He probably went ahead on a scouting trip and after deciding it was a feasible move and  acquiring the small farm, sent for the family to join him.

If this were the case, the family probably traveled to their new home by the Hanibal, St. Joseph, Quincy, and Kansas City Short Line which served Danville, Illinois, only 18 miles from Eugene.  It advertised “Fast express trains without change of cars . . . elegant and sumptuous drawing-rooms, sleeping and palace and day coaches, furnished with all modern improvements calculated to contribute to comfort, speed, and safety.”  They would have changed trains at Kansas City, taking the Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf Line to Paola, the county seat. The alternative to train travel was stage coach or their own wagons.

Train Food Bitter, Rancid with Alkaline Water

Today’s traveler complains about airline food and tolerates the fast food outlets on a long Interstate journey but this food is gourmet compared to what was set in front of the famished traveler in the greasy railroad stops of 1869 – rancid bacon, eggs preserved in lime, bitter coffee made with the local alkaline water, ancient beans, leaden biscuits (called sinkers), and “antelope steak” so tough you couldn’t get your fork in the gravy.  Meal stops lasted 10 to 20 minutes so you had to be a fast eater once the food was served.

Why leave Indiana for Kansas?  Roving tribes of hostile Indians still claimed Kansas as their perpetual hunting grounds and fiercely resisted its settlement.  But the state and federal governments were actively promoting settlement.  The region was described as having fertile soil, healthful climate, pleasing landscape, gurgling brooks and rapid flowing mill streams, grassy plains and prairie billows, timber skirted water courses, broad alluvions, and exhaustless deposits of coal, salt, and gypsum.  Prospective settlers were told the state was filling rapidly with cultivated fields, numberless domestic herds, and thriving towns.  Troops began patrolling railroad tracks and the border and eliminated Indian attacks by 1870.

Luke Passes on Homestead Land Act

One can’t help but wonder why Lute didn’t take ad-vantage of the Act of May 20, 1862 and homestead on a one-fourth section of land (160 acres) for $1.25 an acre ($200.00).  Under the original Homestead Act, all he had to do was attest that he was over the age of 21 or the head of a family, was a citizen, that the land was for his exclusive use and benefit, and that he would settle on and cultivate the land.  The fact he was willing to pay $350 for 40 acres with “appurtenances” suggests he was buying a small working farm with house and out buildings.

What was Sarah’s reaction when she stepped off the train in Paola after living most of her life in a well-established Indiana town?  She must have compared it to Benton county, Iowa of 1857.  The main street was little more than a wide grassy path of buffalo sod rutted by horse hooves and wagon wheels.  There was a general store-post office, land office, livery stable, hotel, barber shop, several saloon-dance halls, and a train and stage depot of flimsy construction.  Numerous tents and dugouts housed some of the inhabitants who were served by a public well and walked on wooden sidewalks.

If the Whipple arrived late in the day, they probably spent their first night in Kansas in the Paola hotel in a room  with a rickety bedstead with straw-filled mattresses and stiff pillows, wash stand with water basin and pitcher, and a small chest of drawers.  Lit by dim kerosene lamps, it was dark and musty and the ever-present bedbugs caused further discomfort.

Miami County, the Whipple’s New Home Details

Miami county, organized in 1856, was principally a farming area with twenty percent bottom land and ten percent woodland.  Middle Creek was one of its principal streams. The Township had two saw and grist mills.  Springs were numerous and well water was12 to 30 feet underground.  “Water witching” with a forked branch of a peach or willow tree was the usual method to locate the well site.

The 1870 federal census counted 117 family farmers in the Township, including 35 tenant farmers, six with no real or personal property.  The Whipples were on the lower end of the economic scale.  The medium worth of the 82 families who owned their farms was $1,600.00 and only $700.00 for the Whipples.  One-hundred-eleven farmers had personal property valued from $50.00 to $4,295.00.  The mean value was $401.00 compared to $250.00 for the Whipples.  They were not among the 29 farm families to send their children to school.  They were counted with the stay-at-home-to-work group.

Lute was 33, Sarah 31, Jim 12, Ed 10, Frank 8, and Anna 7 when they moved to Kansas.  Their immediate neighbors were the William Houston and Andrew Wise families.  Andrew and Eunice Wise were in their mid 30s and had no children. William Houston, 41, was 10 years older than his wife Louisa.  They had a son born in Kansas.  The closest families with children of similar age were the Courts and the McCarthurs.  John and Ann Court were both 39.  She was born in England, he in Ohio.  Their children:  George, 11 and Mary 10, were born in Wisconsin, and William, eight, in Missouri.  Owen and Bridget McCarthur, ages 46 and 44, were born in Ireland.  This family had moved a bit during their early years in America.  They had six children: John, 19 and Mary 17, born in Ohio, William, 15, born in Iowa, Andrew, 11, and Lucy, nine, and Peter, seven, born in Illinois.

It is not known whether the Whipples had a frame or a sod house.  If frame, it was undoubtedly small and confining for a growing family.  Usually living and dining rooms, kitchen, and bedroom were combined.  The winds whistled through the walls in winter and dust blew in the summer.  Typically walls were papered with newspapers and rag carpets covered the floors.

Sod Houses Common in Early Kansas

Sod houses, constructed of blocks of sod called “prairie marble,” were cool in the hot summer and a warm refuge from the numbing temperatures and blizzards of winter.  They could withstand sweeping prairie fires and flaming Indian arrows but lacked ventilation and were perpetually dark, damp, and musty.  A heavy rain would soak through the roof causing water and mud to drip on the family and their belongings.   Usually the dirt floor was covered with carpets or cow and buffalo hides and bright gingham or old newspapers adorned the rough walls.  Patchwork quilts were draped over wooden beds and straw-filled mattresses.  Old crates and barrels were converted to chairs and trunks and used as benches, cupboards, and cradles.

Sarah and the kids were probably in charge of the daily water and fuel supply.  Rainwater  was ladled from an outdoor cistern or drawn, bucket after bucket, from a nearby well.  Since there was no ready source of fuel, they would have combed the prairie for twigs, tufts of grass, hay twists, old corn cobs, woody sunflower stocks, and dried dung (known as chips) left by grazing cattle and buffalo.  They gathered the chips in dry weather, stored them in gunnysacks, and stacked them near the house to be burned during the long winter months.

Lack of Cash Limited Food and Clothing Needs

Food and clothing were high on Sarah’s task list.  Few ready-made food supplies were available and a chronic short-age of cash limited what she could buy.  Fruit, when available, was canned and dried, garden vegetables were stored in the root cellar, meat was dried, smoked, and salted, bread was homemade.  Corn, wheat, and potatoes were the staples.  They ate corn plain or cooked as bread, grits, mush, pudding, and pancakes.  Wheat was boiled plain or baked into biscuits and flapjacks.

She would have taken the younger children into the country side on hot summer days to pick native gooseberries, grapes, choke berries, choke cherries, crab apples, pawpaws, hazel and hickory nuts.  Their cow provided milk and butter for baking; chickens provided eggs and meat; and hogs pro-vided bacon, ham, and salt pork.  Wild game — buffalo, deer, antelope, turkey, quail, and prairie chicken — was a welcome addition to the food supply.

Their clothes were simple and practicable – a few drab  dresses of gingham or calico, a sunbonnet, and a plain muslin apron, denim overalls, dark cotton work shirts, and caps.  Sarah undoubtedly made most of them.  She must have spent hours sewing, darning socks, knitting sweaters, heavy socks and long woolen mufflers.  The coats and shawls brought from Indiana were a blessing during the winter.  Sturdy leather shoes or boots were at a premium so Sarah and the children would have gone barefoot spring, summer, and fall.

Kansas Winter Weather is Harsh; Summer Tornadoes

Life in Kansas was harsh regardless of season.  Winter temperatures near zero for weeks at a time were common and 20 below was not uncommon.  Some days the wind was unrelenting, making the numbing weather almost unbearable.  Blizzards with blinding snow isolated the family. When the wind penetrated every crack and crevice and sleet pounded against the windows and drifts reached the rooftop and buried the woodpiles, the family huddled around the fireplace wrapped in heavy overcoats and woolen blankets trying to keep warm.  Livestock were left untended until the blizzard ended.  The totally white landscape made everything look alike and only familiar posts and fences kept family members from getting lost.

Spring rainstorms and melting snow caused floods that menaced home and field and tornadoes touched down obliterating everything in their path.  Summer could unleash drought and hot winds and/or hail storms.

Nightfall with its dense, boundless blackness brought a sense of solitude broken by the chirr of a cricket, the rustle of the prairie grass, and the howl of the coyote and the wolf who roamed the plains in packs and who were known to attack without provocation or mercy.

Prairie Fires Caused Great Anxiety

A light in the distant sky usually meant a prairie fire and caused great anxiety if the wind was blowing in your direction.  Lute probably plowed a wide strip of ground around the buildings and when a fire approached, the family prayed that a swift wind would not jump the fire guard.  They had to be on guard and ready to fight a fire with buckets of water, pails of dirt, and wet blankets or grain sacks.  Lute’s last act before going to bed during the fire season would have been to check the horizon for signs of flames.

The Whipples only spent two growing seasons – 1869 and 1870 — in Kansas.  Success depended on sun and ample rainfall without hail, fire, and windstorm.  The sun was the one constant but adequate rainfall was not.  Summer temperatures often exceeded 100 degrees.  For most crops twenty inches of rain would produce a substantial harvest but a single drought would break the farmer without cash reserves.  Excessive rain-fall was also devastating if the ground didn’t absorb the moisture and caused precious topsoil to erode.

Corn was the main crop but the average farmer also planted wheat, oats, and potatoes.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Miami county averaged 48 bushel of corn per acre in 1869,  28 in 1870.  Wheat production dropped from 18 to 15 bushel, oats from 42 to 31,and potatoes from 149 to 106.  The 1870 yields probably convinced Lute that he couldn’t support a family of six on a 40-acre farm.

Children’s Workload Demanding

The children’s daily workload was physically demanding and time consuming.  The 1870 census identifies Jim, 12, and Ed, 11, as farm laborers.  This means they helped with the plowing, planting, fence building, slaughtering, trapping, hunting, and caring for the animals.  Frank, 9, and Anna, 8, undoubtedly had daily chores helping their mother.  But there was also time for play.  They probably didn’t have the usual toys of porcelain dolls, tin soldiers, or wooden spinning tops but used their imaginations to make dolls and whistles of twigs, necklaces of berries, and crowns from woven strands of prairie grass.

The kids probably went with their dad to the grove and cut a cedar tree for the one Christmas they spent in Kansas.  Lute and Sarah would have decorated the tree Christmas Eve with candles, colored ribbons, and strings of berries and popcorn and then covered it with a sheet so it couldn’t be seen until morning.

When they woke Christmas morning, each child would have found a long red stocking on the hearth filled with dried apples, quinces, cling peaches dried with the pits intact, popcorn balls, and a simple gift made from whatever material was available.  After Christmas breakfast, the sheet was removed, dad lit the candles, and the kids emptied their stockings.  If there was a heavy snow, they would have remained indoors and made taffy and ginger snaps from sorghum molasses, recited holiday poems and prayers, and sang carols.

Summer Sunday Activities

All family members worked hard and long hours during the summer.  But Sunday was picnic day, weather permitting. Neighbors got together after church with each family bringing a basket of lunch – probably consisting of fried domestic or prairie chicken, boiled ham, pickles, bread and butter, coffee adulterated with rye or beans, cream for the coffee, and cake sweetened with sorghum.  Sometimes the men barbecued fresh buffalo steak over an open fire.  Ball games, foot races, and community singing followed lunch and the younger kids played jump rope, tag, and hide and seek.  It was a tired but happy family that went home to chores Sunday evening.

Dancing was a favorite pastime at weddings, housewarmings, and other neighborhood gatherings.  They began with a grand march followed by  rounds of the polka, the Virginia reel, waltzes, and square dancing.  A collection plate was passed to pay the fiddler.  Refreshment was punch, cookies, and cakes.  Some of the younger men brought other refreshments!

The Fourth of July celebration was the big summer event.  The day usually began with church services followed by a parade led by a drummer and flutist.  A local orator spoke about the founding of the Republic and, if available, a makeshift band performed.  Children of all ages played games and competed in races.  The evening fireworks were followed by a community dance.

Occasional Visits to Town, A Major Event

On the few occasions they got to go to town, the kids marveled at what they saw at the general store.  Baskets of maple sugar by the chunk; barrels of white flour, buckwheat flour, and coarse meal; New Orleans molasses, vinegar, salt, and salt pork; white, light brown, and dark brown sugar; kits of mackerel and whole salted dried codfish hung by the tail; ham, shoulder, and slabs of bacon hung from the ceiling; strings of red pepper and sacks of potatoes; turnips, cabbage, pumpkin, and long-neck squash; cheese and kegs of lard and hulled corn hominy.  Shelved behind the counter were quinine and patent medicines; tobacco; boxes of soda crackers; crocks of honey; coffee and tea; starch in bulk; bottles of catsup; cream of tartar; spice; rice; and large jars of striped candy.  Calico, muslin, and wool; plain white dishes; steel knives and forks and pewter spoons; jars for pickles; milk crocks; pans; wooden tubs and pails; brooms; chamber pots; hoes, rakes, and spades; ropes; kegs of nails; hand tools; and breaking plows were on display.  It was a cornucopia beyond belief.

Farmers’ shopping day  was a time to  play with other kids in town and for the folks to pick up mail from the relatives back in Indiana and Iowa.

Frank Daniels III, a member of the staff of the Pilot Newspaper in Southern Pines, North Carolina in his article, “Separating the Comments from the Chaff,” published recently wrote this about Fred L. Whipple.
His Work Made Space Travel Safer

“ His more than 70 years of astronomical observations and scientific work changed our understanding of comets and made space travel safer.

“Whipple started his academic career in mathematics and graduated from UCLA in 1927, but he became fascinated with physics and astronomy and got his doctorate at the University of California, Berkley. He immediately headed east to accept a job at the Harvard College Observatory in 1931.

He Predicted the Age of Satellites

“When he passed away on Aug. 30, 2004, the Harvard Gazette obituary quoted Charles Alcock, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, “Fred Whipple was one of those rare individuals who affected our lives in many ways. He predicted the coming age of satellites, he revolutionized the study of comets, and as director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, he helped form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.”
“His astrophysical talents were quickly apparent. While in graduate school, he was part of a team that mapped the orbit of Pluto (when it was still considered a planet). When he started at the Harvard observatory he was primarily interested in meteors, and helped prove that meteors originated within the solar system and were not interstellar visitors.

“In 1933, he discovered his first comet, designated 36P/Whipple, a periodic comet, and also the asteroid 1252 Celestia. He discovered, or co-discovered, five more comets during his research.

Worked On Radar Detection In WWII

“He interrupted his solar system research during World War II to work with the military efforts, primarily on radar detection counter-measures. He co-developed a chaff-cutter device that “transformed 3 ounces of aluminum foil into 3,000 half-wave dipoles.” Chaff confuses enemy radar systems to protect airplanes from attack. (Astronomy magazine obituary)

“After the war Whipple returned to his research, and began to think about man’s eventual forays into space. In 1946, he invented the Whipple Shield, a “meteor bumper,” to protect space vehicles from meteor impacts. Improved versions of the shield are still used today.

Organized Global Network to Track Satellites

“He was one of a handful of scientists to predict the emergence of artificial satellites. They organized a global network of amateur astronomers that would track satellites, whenever they might be launched.  Sputnik I was launched on Oct. 4, 1957, and Whipple’s network, “Moonwatch,” was the only non-Russian source of information about the satellite; the U.S. government was not prepared to release any information.

“In 1950, Whipple published his theory that a comet nucleus was an icy conglomerate, not “flying sandbanks” as previously thought. And the composition, when heated by the solar wind, is what caused the variability of comet orbits.

Observers had been mystified by the inaccuracy of mathematical predictions of the reappearance of comet. In 1910, Halley’s Comet returned three days later than expected. But the “dirty snowball” theory, explained how the explosive expansion of methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide that Whipple postulated would alter orbits.

Whipple’s Theories Cited In Scientific Papers

“Astronomy magazine quoted Brian Marsden, director of the Minor Planet Center, in their obituary, “The [icy conglomerate model] was one of the most important contributions to solar system studies in the 20th century.” Whipple’s papers on his theories are still among the most cited scientific papers.

“He was still engaged in research as late as 1999, when he joined the CONTOUR mission. He was 93, and still a mind to be reckoned.”

Published with permission of Frank Daniels III.