By Casey Jarmes
The archives in the News-Review office go back to the seventies, but the Keokuk County Historical Society’s online archives go back to 1860. I’ll cover the earliest days of the paper eventually, but this week, I opted to jump back an entire century. I dug through the 1925 issues of the Keokuk County News, one of the predecessors to the News-Review. It was the most popular paper in the county and sold for $1.50 a year. At the time, the paper’s slogan was “The Home of Good Printing.”
The year’s first paper, published Jan. 1, mentioned that the previous Sunday had the coldest weather in years, with thermometers reaching thirty below. It also mentioned that Sigourney woman Maude Jennings had died unexpectedly of a stroke the previous Saturday, something the paper referred to as an “irreparable loss for the community.” I mention this primarily because I was amused by the bluntness of the headline “MRS. PRICE JENNINGS DIES SUDDENLY.” A headline the following week read “GRIM REAPER BUSY DURING 1924.” It discussed the 182 deaths the previous year and listed out how many people died in each month. The winner was May, with 23 deaths, while August and November tied for lowest with eight each. This was paired with the story “CUPID BUSY PAST YEAR,” recounting the weddings; there were 114, with December having the most (eighteen) and March the least (two).
The 1925 papers contained constant news stories about people being arrested for possessing, transporting, or manufacturing hooch. These stories bleed together, but I would like to note the July 9 headline “ANOTHER ‘LEGGER BITES THE DUST,” which was attached to a story about a Washington man arrested for six months and fined $600 for selling four gallons of alcohol, for being a fun headline. Another great headline “STILL ANOTHER STILL STILLED,” came on Sept. 24, with a story about two Sigourney men being arrested for making booze in a ditch.
Also strangely common in 1925 were train accidents. On Jan. 3, a freight train smashed through a wooden bridge half a mile west of Richland, plunging six cars full of coal into the creek. In April, the engine of a car driven by the Holmes couple from Richland died while they were crossing railroad tracks, leading the car to be struck by a freight train; the car was destroyed, but the Holmses walked away with only bruises. Later, in July, Carl Stirlen’s car was completely obliterated when his engine died on a rail crossing, then a Rock Island train backed up over it. The train’s caboose was derailed, something that Stirlen said made them even.
The Jan. 8 paper featured an ad for the movies showing at the Garden Theater, a movie theater located in the building now used by Southeast Iowa Elite. The ad states that, on Jan. 14 and 15, the theater would show “America,” a Revolutionary War movie directed by D.W. Griffith. The ad boasts that “America” is “even more wonderful than ‘Birth of a Nation,’” another one of the 518 movies directed by Griffith. If you know anything about “Birth of a Nation,” you know that it’s not really the type of movie that gets used in positive comparisons nowadays. The ad stated that free admission would be given to Civil War veterans, a demographic that would be around eighty in 1925.
On July 15, a Romani caravan passed through Sigourney, something the paper recounted as “a tribe of gypsies invaded the city.” The mayor and night watch immediately threatened to arrest them. One of the Romani men gave the mayor a couple of five dollar bills, which convinced the mayor to let them leave without issue. The paper makes zero mention of any member of the caravan comiting an actual crime.
In Jan., John Freres caught a young raccoon and kept it as a pet; paper describe raccoon as “mighty pretty fellow.” Also in Jan., Sigourney was included in plans for a “Liberty Highway” stretching from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, passing through New York City, Atlantic City, Philadelphia Washington D.C., and the Quad Cities; in April, the planned road was rerouted to go north of the county. On Jan. 14-16, the Harper Knights of Columbus held a winter fair, featuring dancing and the giving away of a new car. On Jan. 16, the West Laffer schoolhouse southwest of Sigourney burned down, forcing school to be hosted at a nearby farm house. On Jan 31, Keota farmer Perry Palmer was blinded in one eye when the glass jars of battery acid he used to power the electrical lights on his farm exploded in his face. In February, multiple dogs in Sigourney were poisoned. On March 7, the Keswick High School Boys Basketball Team won the county tournament, beating eight other Keokuk County teams; they also won the tournament in 1924.
On April 12, a monument containing a boulder and a bronze plaque was erected honoring Achilles Rogers, the only Revolutionary War soldier buried in Keokuk County. On May 6, Henry Adams, Paul Eldridge and Frank Knight of Sigourney were arrested for dynamite fishing. On May 22, 47 students graduated from Sigourney High School, then the largest class in the district’s history. On May 29, Sigourney students put on the play “Come Out of the Kitchen.”
In July, Omar and Wesley Hubbs of Rubio were arrested after stealing chickens from half a dozen farms around the county; the chickens were returned to their owners. Also in July, a horse died after being struck by lightning. On July 22, Ted Hamilton of Delta almost died while cutting hay, when a bee stung his horse, causing it to run off and throw him into the mower’s sickle. On July 29, the cornerstone of the Richland High School was placed. On Aug. 4, 5,000 people traveled to the now-deserted town of Lancaster for its homecoming.
On Thanksgiving, rival high school football teams What Cheer and Sigourney tied, 7-7. On Dec. 4, a massive snow storm hit Sigourney, dropping 12.5 inches. On Dec. 15, burglars robbed the France and Steigleder Lumbar Company in Martinsburg by bombing open the safe with nitroglycerin; by the time the police arrived, snow had covered their tracks, allowing the thieves to get away.
