Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

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protection. The theory was that the bees were gorged
with nectar to live on until they found a new home. In
fact, you relied on the odor. If it changed, you put on
gloves and long shirt, stuck your pants inside of your
socks, and put on a bee veil to protect your face. The
bees were then put in the back of our station wagon and
we drove home through Anamosa with no bee stings.
This, then, would explain why my father or
grandfather would be seen around town in 90 degree
weather, in long sleeve shirt and pant legs inside of
their socks!
Every spring my father would order "queens”:
packages containing a queen and a few workers.
Usually they came by train,and we would go down to
the depot to get them. Sometimes, when just a few were
ordered, they would be delivered by mail and the
mailman would deliver live bees, just as if they were a
letter.
in the fall we would melt all of the bees’ wax
collected with the honey crop and put it into old feed
sacks. These were sent to a company down south that
formed the wax into sheets that the bees used as a form
to store the honey in the next year.
In visiting the train depot, a mild interest existed
about an old building called the roundhouse. located at
the south corner of the block with the municipal
swimming pool. This building was where the steam
engines could turn so that they did not have to back
down the tracks.
Below the “bee patch” we had a garden about two
lots in size. Every spring a neighbor, Harry Porter,
would bring his team of horses and plow this area. One
edge of the garden was directly in front of a row of bee
hives. During the summer when the garden needed
weeding, I always plowed by hand at 5:30 in the
morning because by 6:30 a.m. the bees would be very
thick and were easily irritated.
There was a creek running through the next lot to our
garden; a neat place for wading. There was also an old
train trestle. One day a noise as loud as a cannon-shot
was heard. Everyone nearby ran to this spot where a
cement truck, loaded with cement, had just hit the
trestle. The impact knocked the top off of the cement
truck and moved the trestle, it was judged, about two
inches. Today the trestle has been removed and a
community center is going up on the site by the lot next
to the old bee business.
William Cunningham: Ice Man
by Bertha Finn
W.A. Cunningham started an ice business while still
a young lad by delivering ice around Anamosa in a
basket. He next used a wheelbarrow and this was
gradually replaced with teams of horses. When he was
24 he had 15 men in his employ.
He, like farmers, was a victim of the weather. At
times what was to be a two-year supply of ice, would be
exhausted the first year due to extremely hot
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1899 photo of W.A. Cunningham (submitted by
Anamosa Historical Society)
1 83
temperatures of the sultry lowa summers.
By 1883 he was putting up 1200 tons of ice, 15 in.
thick, and crystal clear. Mr. Cunningham was
supplying ice to Martelle. Stone City, as well as
Matthew's Mill and Col. Shaw's creamery.
Refrigerated railway cars on the Chicago
Northwestern came on the scene in 1888, for which he
supplied 100 tons of ice per season.
Perhaps it was the prospects of this new outlet that
caused a couple of other Anamosa business men to
think, ‘ice’. Ed Atkinson and O.E. Brown built a large
ice warehouse. and had an ice wagon fitted up.
The Eureka editor agreed that it would be beneficial
to the community to have two ice wagons in operation.
William Cunningham disgreed. It might be said that
he didn't care if they had a warehouse and ice wagon.
but he went to court and obtained a temporary
injunction restraining the newly fonned ice company
from getting ice from his location.
At the court trial, Mr. Cunningham explained that he
had written agreements with the abutting land owners
on the Wapsipinicon river banks and to the center of
the river. This extended from Doan's Mill, upstream to
the mouth of the Buffalo. His complaint stated that the
other firm used his land, across which they hauled the
ice after it was cut. He claimed exclusive rights to the
land, by written agreement.
This didn't cut any ice with the jury, however, as the
members of that body found for Brown and Atkinson.
While William Cunningham's attorneys were
planning an appeal, Mr. Atkinson received word of a
family tragedy. William purchased the large
warehouse, belonging to the defendants of his suit, and
he hired Mr. King from Monticello to move the building
down to the river to adjoin Cunningham's other
warehouse.
Moving the large ice house took several weeks. The
greatest difficulty was moving it down the then narrow
passage of the road below the schoolhouse.
Mr. Cunningham also constructed another