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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI JUST BEFORE THE WAR--EVENTS OCCURRING IN '57-'s8-'59 AND '60 By F. Q. Lee FOUNDING OF THE FREEMAN THE FIRST FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION COUNTERFEITERS ANOTHER PAPER TOWN A COUNTY ELECTION--AN ELECTION CONTEST A COUNTY FAIR IN '57 AN EARLY TRAGEDY RIVER LAND GRANT WILD CAT MONEY HORSE THIEVES RAILROAD EXCITEMENT--THE TOWN OF HAWLEY BUILDING THE FIRST BRIDGE ARRIVAL OF JACOB SKINNER--CARPENTER VS. DUNCOMBE THE FIRST HAY SCALES AN ATTEMPT TO INCORPORATE RESCINDING THE RAILROAD BONDS THE WET SEASON OF '58 WADING THE SLOUGHS THE FIRST BREWERY PROMINENT MEN ARRIVE THE RIVER STEAMER REACHES FORT DODGE THE SWAMP LAND FUND AN ATTEMPT TO GET A NEW COURT HOUSE-- AN INDIGNATION MEETING JUDGE MAXWELL MORE RAILROAD TALK PIONEER POLITICS A COUNTY ELECTION A NEW SCHOOL HOUSE POLITICS IN 1860 STATISTICS THREE NEW BRIDGES. FOUNDING OF THE FREEMAN As we progress with our history, we record no event that gives more pleasure than the establishment of a newspaper in Hamilton county. Such a medium of intelligence is so entirely necessary to every locality, that no community, no matter how well it may be endowed in every other respect, can do without it. About February 15, 1857, Charles Aldrich arrived at Webster City, searching for some suitable place to locate and start a newspaper. He was an experienced printer, having worked at his trade in Buffalo, New York, and Warren, Pennsylvania, and for three years had published a weekly paper at Olean, New York. He quit the newspaper business once, and went to farming, but his love for the old trade called him back and he began to look about for a location. He afterwards accidently got a book in which the writer spoke in glowing terms of Fort Dodge and the valley of the Des Moines and also mentioned, ..