Last week the ad we featured from the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Number book was a joint ad from the Pioneer Store Co. and the Alsager Bros. Meat Market.  This week our collection items are two of the largest and heaviest items we have from these businesses.  One is a 1870 safe made by the Diebold Safe & Lock Co. and the other is a large copper vat.

The safe is the original safe that had always resided in the S.R. Corneliussen & Co. building, which in 1911 became the Pioneer Store Co., and is currently the location for Reliance State Bank.  Due to new banking regulations involving dual control issues that required the purchase of a new safe, and due to minimal vault space, the bank donated the safe to the museum in April of 1999.  The safe had always resided inside a vault at the back of the building until 1972.  It was then moved to an inner vault of the bank and was used to store currency and coin until April of 1999.  More detail photos of the safe can be seen below.

This large vat was used by the Alsager brothers for rendering lard and boiling sausages.  It was found in the basement of what is now Reliance State Bank, which is where the brothers had their meat market.  The Alsager Bros. Meat Market was in business in Story City for over 40 years.

The third advertisement we will be featuring from the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Number book is a joint ad from the Pioneer Store Co. and Alsager Bros. Meat Market.  The Pioneer Store was located at 604 Broad St, on the south-east corner of Broad and Penn Ave. Norsemen Reality is located there today.  

In the early 1900s, this location was owned and operated by S.R. Corneliussen.  In 1911, Corneliussen sold his store to A.G. Larson, J.C. Johnson, Martin Jorgenson, Herman Jorgenson, and J.A.B. Larson.  The store name was changed to the Pioneer Store Company.  

As you can see in the photo below, the Alsager Bros. Meat Market occupied the east end of the building at 608 Broad St.  Reliance State Bank is located there today.  The Alsager Bros. Meat Market was in business until 1946. Alsager’s had a reputation as the best meat market in the county.  Even people from Ames would drive to Story City to buy their meat there.

Two articles were included in the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book about pioneer women, describing these women as the backbone of pioneer life.  Pioneer women led a hard life of long hours, hard work, and few conveniences.  
One of these articles was written by Nehemias Tjernagel, who was an author, composer, and world traveler.  He wrote examples of several local pioneer women, who along with their daily duties would help the sick since medical assistance was not readily available in these early days.  These women included Mrs. Kittel Knutson, who freely gave her services to the sick, diagnosing cases as if by intuition.  Mrs. Christian Karolussen, an intelligent woman with a helpful spirit, “helped usher into the world many of our present citizens.”  Mrs. Haaver Thompson was well known for her hospitable attitude towards children.  Besides caring for her own children, she took in several other children who lost their parents.

Nehemias also wrote of Charlotte Wier, the wife of Captain Wier, who came to Lafayette Township in 1856.  She is remembered for waiting on traveling families for days and days.  Sometimes she would take in so many travelers that they would lie strewn around on the floor at night and she would have to step over them in the morning when getting breakfast ready.   No one was turned away.  Charlotte had “experienced the hardships of travel and knew what a friendly welcome meant.”  

The other article in the book described a young pioneering couple just starting out.  The first year they could not afford to employ a hired man, which meant they milked 14 cows and fed the calves by hand every day.  The household facilities were not the best; the living room adjoining the kitchen was used as the family sleeping room.  House cleaning included white-washing the walls, scouring the unpainted woodwork, washing windows and bed clothes, emptying, washing and refilling the straw bed ticks, taking up the rag carpet, beating the dust out of it, scrubbing the floor, and putting the carpet down again with fresh straw underneath.  If the rag carpet needed to be washed, it was ripped apart and washed on the washboard one strip at a time.  It’s hard to imagine this carpet cleaning process with the multiple vacuums and carpet cleaners available today.

We hope you have enjoyed this brief overview of the lives of early pioneer women in the area.  

Last week the ad we featured from the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Number book was from the Story City Butter Tub Co. Its only fitting that this week we are featuring a butter tub as our Collection Item of the Week.  This butter tub was recently donated by Charlotte Hill. The Hill family owned and operated the Story City Butter Tub Co. for 85 years.

The butter tubs were made from sitka spruce wood which came from Washington state by train. These butter tubs were delivered to creameries all around central Iowa, from as far east as Marshalltown and to the north as far as Mason City.  One tub held 64 pounds of butter.

People who made butter tubs and similar vessels are called coopers. A cooper is someone who makes wooden, staved vessels, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads.  In the photos below you can better see the individual staves that make up this tub.  

Our Mayor, Mike Jensen, recently shared a story from his childhood with us at our Winter Dinner. He would use the lid from a butter tub as a shield when he was pretend fighting with other neighborhood children.  Butter tubs have a variety of uses!

The second advertisement we will be featuring from the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Number book is from the Story City Butter Tub Company.  The Butter Tub Company was a family owned business in Story City for 85 years.

In 1883 Hactor Hill came to America, making his home for short time at his uncle's folks, Bor Enge, at Roland, Iowa. Not long after his arrival to this country he started work at Mr. Thompson's cooper shop in Ames. This shop was moved to Story City in 1887. When Mr. Thompson in 1891 sold his business, the Hill family bought it.  Hactor Hill was in the cooper business for 42 years until his death in 1933.  

Hactor's sons and grandsons owned and operated the Story City Butter Tub Co until a tornado hit Story City in 1976.  The building was demolished in the storm.  At that time it was the oldest building in Story City.  

As you can see from the 1940 ad, the Butter Tub Co. was not only producing quality butter tubs, they also sold coal, stokers, and specialized in roofing. The company specialized in roofing for many years. In fact, Hactor's great grandson, Paul Hill, is currently in the roofing business in Story City.

Several of the contributors in the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book wrote about the early pioneer days of Lafayette Township.  It’s only fitting that we start this journey of looking back at Story City’s history by starting at the beginning. 

Lafayette Township was organized about 1853.  The first town within Lafayette Township was laid out and platted in 1855.  It was comprised of 13 acres in section 12 of the township and from its beautiful, unobstructed view, was named Fairview.  The promoters for the platting were D.M. Brown, George S. Prime, and George W. Sowers.  

Soon after Fairview was platted, Richard E. Jenness built a log house on the west street and during 1856 he built a frame building and opened a store.  William Estell was next to build a frame store in 1856.  F.W. Rhoades opened a business, and on Nov. 29, 1856 was commissioned postmaster.  At this time the name of the town was changed to Story City as there was already another town named Fairview in the state with a post office.  

P.A. Olson, the editor of the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book, included two accounts of the pioneer days by James F. Brown and William A. Wier, both of which were originally written in 1902.  J.F. Brown and family arrived in Lafayette Township on April 13, 1856 from Crawford County, Pennsylvania.  In his article, Brown describes Lafayette Township with the Skunk River running south and the Kegley Creek running southeast and emptying into the Skunk.  The surface was mostly level dark prairie soil and its stiff sod was hard to break.  In certain places ponds were plentiful with ducks, grouse, and game.  According to Brown “the roaming Indians possessed the land.”  The few pioneer neighbors were scattered along the Skunk.  When Brown came to Lafayette Township land was $1.25 per acre. In 1902 when he’s writing this article, the price of land had risen to $70 and $80 per acre.

William A. Wier, who would later become the first mayor of Story City, came to Lafayette Township in 1856 as well.  In his 1902 article, Wier describes the new town of Fairview as having only two residents.  He goes on to list around 40 other residents who lived in Lafayette Township.  At this time most of the residents were from Indiana with a few from Ohio.  Wier goes on to talk about money in those early days.  Paper money was for the most part worthless, only gold and silver could purchase goods.  A notable exception was the bills of the “Bank of Nebraska” which were commonly call B.F. Allen’s “Red Dog” money.  The bank was located in Des Moines and according to Wier the paper notes were always equivalent to coin.

We hope you have enjoyed this brief overview of the beginning pioneer days of Layafette Township and two first-hand accounts of the times.  We've also been posting the advertisements from the 1940 Herald Anniversary Book along with additional information about the businesses on this website.  Collection items relating to the 1940 businesses that advertised in the book are also being shared on the website and Facebook page.  Don't forget to check back weekly for postings on the ads and collection items.

This week we are featuring two recently donated Charlson's Clothes Shop items, a Hart Schaffner Marx hanger and a large apparel box. These items can be seen in our Charlson's exhibit at the Story City Museum located at the corner of Broad St and Hillcrest Dr.  In the upcoming months we will be featuring collection items that correspond to the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Book advertisements.  Thanks to Sandy Jacobson for donating these items.

The first advertisement we will be featuring from the 1940 Story City Herald Anniversary Number book is from Charlson's Clothes Shop.  The Charlson's Clothes Shop was located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Broad St and Pennsylvania Ave.  This building is still referred to as the "Charlson Building" even today. The businesses currently occupying this building are Edward Jones, InVintg, and the Story City Greater Chamber Connection.

In the beginning of January of 1904, the Donhowe Clothing Store, a predecessor of the Charlson's Clothes Shop, moved into what is now considered the Charlson Building.  A men's clothing store continued to occupy that location for 81 years. It was owned by the Donhowe brothers until 1909 when Henry Donhowe sold his interest to Ed Charlson.  From 1909-1918 the store was called Donhowe & Charlson. In 1918 Peter Donhowe became the cashier of the Story City National Bank and Ed Charlson bought out his interest in the clothing store.  There were a few name changes between 1918 -1920, but by 1920 ads were being placed in the Herald with the Charlson's Clothes Shop name.  

When Ed passed away in 1955, Alfred Jacobson and Arnold Johnson became co-owners of the shop.  In September of 1969 when Alfred retired, he had been associated with Charlson's Clothes Shop for fifty years.  Bob Lekwa had worked for Charlson's for several years and took over the business when Arnold Johnson retired.  Bob ran the shop until Charlson's closed in 1985.

This year (2015) marks the 75th anniversary of a supplemental book published by the Herald in 1940; it was titled The Story City Herald Anniversary Number – A Quintuplet Celebration. This quintuplet celebration was for five historical events in Story City’s past including the platting of Story City in 1855, Story City becoming incorporated in 1881, the first newspaper established in 1881, the present Herald starting in 1891, and Paul A. Olson serving as editor of the Herald since 1905.  

The Anniversary Number books were printed in October of 1940 and consisted of 128 pages.  Copies were sold for 15 cents each or two for 25 cents.  A few copies of the book were printed on “book paper” instead of newspaper and were sold at 25 cents each.  P.A. Olson explains on the first page of the book that there is almost a total absence of local photos.  This was due to the fact that three other publications were printed between 1930 to 1940 which featured more photos than reading material.  

The majority of the material in the Anniversary Number book focused on local history.  This included “letters from subscribers” which the Herald had encouraged over the years.  The “Looking Back” section that is a familiar sight to Herald subscribers even today has been a feature in the Herald for more than 75 years.  P.A. chose to include a “Looking Back” section in the Anniversary Number book that covered 1893-1920.  There are also several advertisements from local businesses printed in the books.  

Over the course of 2015, the Herald will feature an article about the Anniversary Number book on a monthly basis.  The Historical Society will also be featuring the 1940 local business ads on our website (storycityhistory.org) and Facebook page on a bimonthly basis. If you would like to see one of the Anniversary Number books in person, please stop by the Carriage House Museum.  The Historical Society has several books published by P.A. Olson and the Herald that are available for research purposes. 

As P.A. Olson printed on the front of the Anniversary Number books, “It’s history that concerns you and me... let’s take time to look back in order that we may go forward intelligently.”  We hope that you enjoy looking back at Story City's history along with us in following months.  

This week in honor of Christmas we are featuring a few of the vintage Christmas cards in our collection.  The card above was sent out by Mr. & Mrs. Charles Bartlett.  Our Bartlett House Museum was named in honor of Bertha & Charles Bartlett.  Bertha was the librarian in Story City from 1927 - 1964.  Charles was a businessman and also worked for the Story City Herald.  

These two cards were sent out by Rev. & Mrs. L.L. Orth of Story City in the early 1920s.  Rev. Orth was the pastor of Grace Evangelical Church.  

We hope you have enjoyed seeing these vintage Christmas cards.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Historical Society!