- Eureka 1910-1919 - (Part 3 of 12) -
(Continued From Last Week) “In January of 1912 a new ice house was built on the site of an old forgotten ice house west of Eureka and it will hold about a thousand tons of natural ice from Fall River. There is a force of twenty-five men working day and night to get the house full before the weather warms. The ice is reported fourteen inches thick on the river and as clear as a crystal. You may now have your choice of natural or artificial ice.
The commissioner of streets and highways of Eureka said that the commissioners were contemplating oiling Main Street for the summer. The cost of sprinkling water, the system now in use for keeping down the dust, is about $7.50 per day and if investigations now being made result satisfactorily, oil will be used this year instead of water.
In February of 1912 the Eureka High School basketball team got revenge for the treatment they received at Howard a short time age. The room under the telephone office before a good crowd of enthusiastic rooters Eureka won 25 to 18. The backstops were made of wire netting and they made accurate goal throwing impossible for strangers. ( The only telephone office that the writer is aware of was located on the second floor of the building south of the arcade in the 200 block of Main Street, on the west side of the block. Wrathhnak Archery is located in this building today).
In February 1912 six trains on the Missouri Pacific were blockaded in the snow drifts between Sallyards and Summit. Passenger train No. 410 which left Eureka in the morning got stuck in the snow which had drifted in the cuts in the hills to a depth of six or seven feet. Three freight trains were blockaded behind it and two engines were sent over from Reece. The six engines succeeded in battering their way through the quarter of a mile of drift after about seventeen hours of work.
In May 1912 Eureka was visited by a very heavy rain. The water came down in torrents and it seemed for a while as Eureka was going to get a second deluge. Many of the people living on the East Side, who were not at home when the rain began were forced to spend the night with friends on the West Side, owing to the walks being flooded. The branch running by the bottling works, and the Houston Lumber Company’s yards( Home Lumber now) was over its banks, flooding the Pop Factory and lumber yard. The water rose to a depth of three feet in Ronen’s livery stable (on east First Street) and it was necessary to lead all the horses out. Estimates of three to eight inches of rain fell. It gave the sidewalks of Eureka a much-needed cleaning, and packed the road beds until now the roads are in excellent condition. Although some of the “Howlers” are complaining of it, the majority of the people consider it a cracking good thing.
Farmington School District #50, which was about six miles south of Eureka approved a new school house in 1912. The building will be 32x40 and will cost $1,500. The school house will also be used for church services, for the Grange, and for social gatherings of the district.
In July of 1912 in Eureka a meeting was called by the automobile owners of Eureka and vicinity and formed an organization to be called the Automobile Club of Eureka. New autos are being received in Eureka every week and the necessity for an organization was very apparent. Farmers come to town in autos to do their trading, cattlemen go to their pastures, merchants go to and from their places of business and doctors make their calls in their autos, to say nothing of the pleasure trips that are taken in them.
One auto owner recently reported to The Herald that there were about ninety cars in Eureka and the immediate vicinity. This number of people interested in good roads and favorable auto conditions brought the meeting together.
After the big rain in July, 1912 in the afternoon and evening, Spring Creek got on the rampage and got out of its banks, tearing along at a great rate. Thousands of fish caught in the muddy current were smothered and when the water receded, they were left in the brush and weeds along the banks of the stream. Not all the fish that were left high and dry were smothered, as the water went down as rapidly as it came up and many fish were caught in the low places on the bank and could not get back into the main stream. The banks of Fall River below where Spring Creek empties into it are lined for miles with dead fish. They are of all varieties: carp, bass, cat fish, buffalo and suckers, and some of them weigh as much as twenty pounds.
Two tramps in July of 1912 went to the Carl Kurtz home and asked for something to eat. Mr. Kurtz told his wife to give them whatever was in the house, but not to cook them anything to eat. The tramps seemed quite peeved because Mr. Kurtz would not let his wife cook them something to eat and began to talk as if they would start trouble if they did not get a warm meal. Mr. Kurtz got his shot gun and told them to move on or he would move them on with the assistance of a little powder and leadthey moved on all right, but they told him that they would see him later. Night came and about ten o’clock Mr. Kurtz’s barn caught fire and was burned to the ground. Now whether that is one way the tramps have of seeing Mr. Kurtz later or whether the barn caught fire some other way, is not known. Mr. Kurtz lost the barn, two sets of harness, a lister and other smaller farm machines and tools.
The High School football team (called Roosevelt High School later) of the State Normal of Emporia (Emporia State) defeated the Eureka High School at the fairgrounds Saturday afternoon in October of 1912 by a score of 20-0. The train that the Emporia came on was late and the quarters were cut down to ten minutes. Intermission was ten minutes between halves. They had to quit play at 4:15 p.m. in order for the Emporia team to return home that evening and they lacked five minutes of playing three quarters.
The poultry houses in Eureka have shipped out over seventy-five thousand pounds of turkey, chickens and ducks to the city people for Thanksgiving in November of 1912. Mr. Ryan, manager for the Jensen Bros. poultry house at Eureka has an expert chicken and turkey picker at work and about ten men in addition to his regular force, busy picking and dressing the birds. Mr. Ryan has shipped 25,000 pounds of turkeys, 24,000 pounds of chickens, 12,000 pounds of ducks and 10,000 pounds of geese. The H.P. Robins poultry house has shipped out about a thousand pounds of turkeys and several thousand pounds of chickens and ducks. Mr. Robins bought turkeys almost entirely for his local trade and only shipped those that he thought he could not sell in Eureka.
In late November of 1912 Eureka High School football team won an easy game over Baldwin football team, thus establishing its claim for state championship. The game score was 48 to 6. n December of 1912 the new school building at Virgil was formally opened. The pupils marched from the old school building and took possession of the new building. Supper was served to the large crowd that was present.
The new building just completed is for Union District No. 2-the second consolidated district formed in the county. This district was formed about three years ago by the uniting of Districts 68 (Kenton), 97( Loveland), and 7 (Allen) and has proven a success in every way. The building is of brick with white stone foundation and trimmings, has four class rooms besides commodious halls, cloak and toilet rooms and is completely and artistically finished and furnished throughout. A modern hot air heating plant has been installed at a cost of $2,000. The building as completed has cost $14,000 and is unequaled in the county outside of Eureka and Madison. In this district the pupils are transported in wagons at the expense of the district.
The Eureka High School basketball team went to Emporia in the morning to play Emporia Normal and lost 73 to 26. They then played Emporia High and lost 30 to 29. The team stopped on their way home (by train) and played Hamilton basketball team. The game ended in a tie. A goal was thrown after the game to see which team would win. (No overtime rules in 1912) The Hamilton crowd almost mobbed the E.H.S. boys during the process. (Eureka won and I bet the boys slept well when they got home after three games)”
