Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

and returned to the Joslin cabin. George Brown often
told the story of arriving at the cabin and seeing Mrs.
Joslin baking white bread on a board tipped up before
the flreplace and his hunger being such that he
admittedly shed a few tears of happiness. It had been
four weeks since he had had this luxury.
John G. and all of his flve sons were skilled rifle shots.
J.L. Joslin, who gathered the familiy history. told of
Hiram Joslin killing 21 deer one winter and that eight
carcasses were piled up at one time in the attic where
they were kept frozen until needed.
In 1909. four years before Hiram’s death. T.E. Booth
interviewed him regarding the early days of the county.
Hiram told of the time that he and Miles Russell were
hunting a mile and a half northwest of Fairview and
Hiram brought down a large buck deer and its mate.
The buck weighed over 400 pounds. He gave the skins
to his father, who knew the art of tanning them for
clothing. He said the buckskins were a little sticky
when wet by the weather, or river crossings, but lasted
a very long time.
Edmund Booth returned to Fairview in 1869 for a
July 4th celebration and wrote of it in his newspaper,
the Eureka. A condensed version of the account
follows: " The combustion of gun powder was
immense. There was lavish display of flags and cannon
while the boys burned up a fortune in the way of flre
crackers. At half past ten the procession was formed,
headed by a martial band under the charge of Eli Hale,
Marshal. and Lucius Pierce, assistant, which wended
its way to the grove northeast of town."
There the program took place. with vocal music and
prayers and speakers. One speaker reviewed the state
of the nation and also advocated universal suffrage.
regardless of color. race or political record, “provided a
proper standard of intelligence be required among the
voters. As for the ladies, the flrst right they had was to
cease foolish expenditures on dress and their frenzy for
Paris fashons: that being well settled we would talk of
voting afterwards."
"After the picnic, the order seemed to be powderburning,
swinging, burning, ball-playing, love-making,
and a general jubilee of free and easy enjoyment”
Booth then turned his thoughts to the years that had
passed by.“The children — now grown into middle life
and became heads of families — were there. but not
one of the chiefs of households whom we met for the
flrst time in 1839, Lathrop Olmstead. John Crow.
Clement Russell, John Leonard. David G. Dumars.
John G. Joslin. Gidean Peet and George H. Walworth
are all dead.
“We looked around town. The first dwelling, a log
cabin, 18 by 20 feet. built by Clement Rusell in 1838.
has long since disappeared and its site constitutes a
part of an unknown-named street, where it joins the
main street. The second. built by John Leonard and, in
1839, sold to Lathrop Olmstead. has been out of
existence many years. The third, built by this writer
and the flrst after the town had been laid out. stands
yet. having sunk two feet, through decay, from its
original altitude and bears but small resemblance to
what it was.
“The rest of the town has elegant dwellings of a
quarter century old and as unadorned as on the day the
last board was nailed on. The site is one of finest that
can be found for a town and was one of the highest
promise. The railroad, unluckily, passed a mile and a
half one side, and caused a check (in the growth]. Still it
is at the junction ofall the principal roads leading to the
Wapsi Bridge and must always be a point of
importance.
"Thirty years have made it a respectable-sized village
covering the spacious prairie. stretching away six
miles south and indeflnitely east and west with one sea
of farms; and thirty years hence will flnd all its streets.
elegant cottages and magnificient mansions, while
whatever bear marks of dinginess and decay will have
vanished.
"A neat and commodious brick church. Baptist, has
adorned the place for several years and is under the
ministerial charge of N.B. Homan. Opposite to it is a
new frame and still larger church nearly finished, being
erected by the Campbelites or Christians, and is under
the charge of Elder Hurd.
“At a little distance from these and in the midst of a
spacious play ground stands the two- story school
house. a striking contrast to the little log cabin which
Lathrop Olmstead taught the flrst school in the
township, if we remember rightly, in the winter of
1840-41.
“The Fairview House, a two-story hotel. is one of the
institutions of the place; and its barn, of ample size, was
orginally built by C. Russell and moved to where it
stands.
“Two or three stores and several shops are to be
found on Main Street, but we did not learn the names of
the owners, with the exception of G.D. McKay's one
story store of a year ago has been metamorphosed into
a good looking two-story and the magic words. ‘Post
Offlce’ hang at the front.
“lt has been a pleasant day and a pleasure to meet
there so many well-dressed intelligent looking persons.
As we rode homeward, memory was busily engaged in
working among the years of the past, now fast
becoming naught save a tradition."
In March, 1857, J.S. Smith wrote to the Anamosa
Eureka,"The citizens of Fairview and vicinity feeling a
great need for the better accommodations for the
education of their youth. by a spontaneous impulse.
resolved to establish. in their own thriving town, an
institution of learning that would afford them such
facilities.”
Accordingly, they met at the school house — a work
of private enterprise — and elected a board of trustees,
viz: Eli Gilbert, J.A. Secrest. Dr. Harding, Joseph
Ingram. John Mershon, T.O. Mershon. M.D., William
Manly. Silas Rundall. T.O. Alspach, Sidney Marshall.
S.M. Smith, Joseph Leonard. The meeting also
appointed committees to draft articles of incorporation,
and rules and regulations. for the school. The school
opens under the new regulations Wednesday, March
18. 1857. Ample provisions have been made for
boarding at very reasonable price.
Joseph A. Secrest has been given the credit for
establishing the Fairview Academy, which for some
years before it burned, was the center of educational
endeavors. Among the prominent students who
attended the academy were Judge Milo P. Smith,
soldier, lawyer and jurist, who died at the age of
91 , after retiring from the bench at age 89.
There are differing opinions as to the year of the flrst
school in Fairview. one account gives 1839-40 and
another account reports 1841-42.The location and
teacher are agreed upon, however, as being on the east
side of Fairview in a log cabin owned by Lathrop
Olmstead. Olmstead. a Washington Irving, Ichobod
Crane type of man, was also given the credit, in an