Rolling
west through Iowa toward Omaha on Iowa Hwy. 2, we came to Appanoose County
where we made our first stops for photos…
The
County Seat for Appanoose County is located in Centerville Iowa. This neo-classical limestone structure is the
3rd courthouse for the county, with construction being completed
back in 1904. Construction costs were
$69,900. According to an entry in
Wikipedia, “the second courthouse burned down to the first floor during an explosive
Fourth of July fireworks demonstration”.
Appanoose
County was named for the Meskwaki (aka Fox) Chief Appanoose, who did not engage
in the Black Hawk War in Iowa and Illinois, instead advocating peace. (I
borrowed this image from Wikipedia) The Fox/Meskwaki Indians at one time
occupied much of what are now the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and
Iowa.
In 1851
the Iowa state legislature passed an unusual act to allow the Fox to buy land
and stay in the state. The Federal
Government had ‘persuaded’ the Sauk and Meskwaki to sell all their claims to
land in Iowa in a treaty of October 1842.
In 1857, the Meskwaki purchased their first 80 acres in Tama County. Iowa’s governor had to hold the land in trust
as Native Americans were not recognized as citizens who could own land.
In
World War II, Meskwaki men enlisted in the US Army with several serving as code
talkers, along with Navajo and other speakers of uncommon languages. Meskwaki men used their language to keep
Allied communications secret in actions against the Germans in North Africa. A
total of 27 Meskwaki men, then 16% of the Meskwaki population in Iowa, enlisted
together in the U.S. Army in January 1941.
Today the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County maintains a casino, tribal
schools, tribal courts, tribal police and a public works department.
But I
digress…
The
courthouse square in Centerville is also listed on the National Register of
Historic Places. I love the look of the
Continental Hotel with its old windows on the first floor facing the
square. As you might notice, this hotel
was built in 1893. It has been
refurbished and updated and it’s still open for business thanks to a local entrepreneur. Executive suites are available for $129.00
per night with standard rooms costing less.
To learn more, go to http://thecontinental.info/.
Factoids:
· Coal was king in Appanoose County for many
years. The first mine opened in
1857. Mining in the county peaked in
1917. The largest mine alone employed
between 130 – 150 miners. Over 400 mines
operated and closed over the years. The
last mine closed in 1971.
· In 1923, the Klu Klux Klan basically took
over the area. They spread fear
throughout the area but in 1925, voters brought in a new administration that
threw them out.
· During prohibition, Centerville and
Appanoose County was a hotbed for illegal stills and liquor production. Many of the immigrants were used to a glass
of wine or spirits back in their home country.
Bootlegging became a way of life and the area was rumored to be the
haunt of gangs from St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago.
· Fred 'Killer' Burke, a member of Al Capone’s
gang and the leader of the gunmen who carried out the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, took out a marriage license using an alias and got married to a farm girl from Centerville. He was captured a short time later in
Greenville Missouri.
The
Ritz Theater occupies one corner of the historic town square. It’s striking because with its ‘Moorish’
style, it’s different than anything else in town. It was formerly the Orpheum Theater but it
was renamed the Ritz in 1926. By 1929 it
had a new popcorn popping machine and it was showing its first ‘talkie’
movies!
Speaking
of motion pictures, I found a rather interesting short video on-line talking
about the history of Centerville and its citizens. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx8MU5D-aG4&feature=youtu.be.
Factoids:
· With the coal fields as the primary draw,
immigrants seeking a better future coming from as many as 40 different
countries flocked to Centerville. There
were English, Welsh, Swedes, Swiss, Italians, Croats, Turks, Germans, Russians,
Syrians and many many more nationalities were represented in this group.
· During the Civil War Centerville was a
conduit for the Underground Railroad.
Located close to the slave state border of Missouri, it was a jumping
off spot for escaped slaves on their journey to Canada.
· In 1850, the population of Appanoose County
was only 3,131. With the discovery of
the coal fields by 1860 there were 11,931 residents! During the Civil War, 1,500 county residents
served in the Union Army with 300 of them dying in the conflict.
The old
Appanoose County Sheriff's Residence and Jail was built in 1872. It’s just about a block and a half from
Courthouse Square. The most common type of
jail built in the state between the 1840's and up to 1950 was the sheriff's
quarters/jail combination. In this type,
the sheriff's residence looked much like any other dwelling, but was physically
attached to a wing containing the actual jail cells. The sheriff and his family resided in the
house, with his wife usually in charge of providing meals and laundry services
for the prisoners.
The
jail wing, at the rear of the house in this instance, contained multiple cells
within a larger steel cell block. In
earlier times, county and municipal jails were viewed as places of
incarceration, custodial in nature, with no effort being made toward reform. I don’t think that we do much better than
that in this day and age.
When I
went to Michigan State University in the 1960s, I was a Police Administration
major. I spent 10 weeks in field
training as it was part of the course curriculum. For part of that time, I actually stayed in a
combination sheriff’s residence/jail facility in Adrian Michigan. The sheriff’s family was too large for the
housing provided so I was able to enjoy a bit of free housing… I never even saw
one of the prisoners.
In 1973
the county Board of Supervisors gave the building to the Appanoose County
Historical Society for use as a museum. This
log cabin was added to the grounds at a later date. At one point, the Sheriff’s residence and
jail were used by the historical society to display their collection of local
artifacts. I searched for information relevant
to visiting the jail on the County Historical Society’s website and I came up
empty…
When
the combination residence/jail was completed in 1872, the local newspaper noted
that “With a $30,000 Court house, a $10,000 jail, a $6,000 poor farm, and the
County Treasurer prepared to redeem outstanding warrants, who can say that the
financial condition of Appanoose County is not of the best?” This facility was used as the county jail
until 1970 according to the Historical Society’s sign in front of the structure.
The Appanoose County Historical Society
is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Appanoose-County-Historical-Coal-Mining-Museum-282228910222/.
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a little bit of American history!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
That's quite a history for a little town in nowhere Iowa
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