Cleghorn in 1896
The Town of Cleghorn is located on the main line of the Illinois
Central Railway, fifty miles east of Sioux City and eleven miles west
of Cherokee. The town site is on Section 5, in the north western
part of Sheridan Twp., Cherokee County, Iowa and covers an area of
about 100 acres.
It
is a beautiful little village and has a number of live and energetic
citizens. It has two churches, Christian and Presbyterian, a new
School House 28x50, two stories, which is one of the neatest in north
western Iowa, three general stores, two hardware, one drug, two
implement houses both of whom deal in harness, two millinery shops, one
dressmaker, jeweler, barber shop, blacksmith shop and wagon works, pool
room and restaurant, shoe shop, two grain elevators, two carpenter
shops, one of the best banks in Iowa, meat market, hotel, creamery,
lumber yard, dray line, and numerous other enterprises. Below we give a
short history as near as we have been able to learn during our sort
stay here.
About thirty years ago when the Dubuque and Sioux
City Railroad was built through north western Iowa, there remained a
number (278) for a proposed station between the towns of Meriden on the
east and Marcus on the west. The land agents for a few years seemed to
especial stress on this to those who purchased land in this vicinity
during that time, which was not easily forgotten by the farmers here,
and in the fall of 1889 it reached the climax. The Railroad
officials were informed of the wish of the entire neighborhood and with
one accord seemed to consider the prospect for station favorably.
But the product this time was more than the prophecy; our sister towns
on the east and west soon were heard to roar and with angry and
agitated business men sent in petitions of remonstrance. These
seemed for a time to make the case a hopeless one. But the brave
tillers of the soil, among whom were: J. W. Dailey, Rev. A. Cleghorn,
T. D. Kennedy, G. S. Smith, A. Anderson, O. C. McConnell, Jacob
Hopkins, S. H. Dixson, Wm. McFeeters, and some others, were not so
easily discouraged. They laid their plans and petitions before
the Railroad Commissioners who came here in a special car, to view the
site and explain the facts in the case. Two of the Commissioners
opposed the location of a station. In a short time thereafter an
agreement was reached between the Railroad Company and those who were
interested and the new station of Cleghorn was established. By
agreement these farmers paid the sum of $500 in cash to the Company and
done all the grading for the 1800 feet of side track. After the
siding was put in a platform was built and was known as a flag station.
The E. M. Dickey Co., of Dubuque, built a ware house and the first
car load of grain was shipped from Cleghorn February 11th, 1890.
The stock yards were built and George (Uncle) Stevens & Sons began
in the live stock business and they shipped the first car of stock
February 23rd, 1890. About this time application was made for a Post
Office and J. M. Mills received the appointment as Postmaster and the
village named Cleghorn, in honor of Dr. Adams Cleghorn, who is at the
present time one of our most enterprising citizens. Mr. Mills
moved a small building and began his duties as Postmaster. He
soon after placed in his building a small stock of merchandise, thereby
gaining the distinction of being Cleghorn’s first merchant. This
was in the early spring of 1890.
Dr. Cleghorn built the corner
store and J. W. Dailey put in a stock of hardware and began
business. J. E. Williams & Co. were the next to put in their
appearance. They erected a building and now have a good paying
mercantile business. Dr. J. Failing built a neat little store and
put in a stock of drugs. Matt Bush, coming from the country south
of town, the present Postmaster, and one of our most enterprising
citizens, who believes in building up Cleghorn, built a building and
commenced in the Hardware and Implement business. He has been
successful and is held in high esteem by his fellow townsmen.
THE CLEGHORN CREAMERY
John
and Tom Robinson, who were brothers started the creamery in Cleghorn.
The brothers ran a general store in Cleghorn and then opened the
creamery. It was just south of where the Northern Natural gas
substation is now, and about one-eighths of a mile north of Cleghorn.
When the creamery was operating, they ran the machinery with a large treadmill powered by a bull. By 1896 the average daily amount of milk processed was about eight thousand pounds, and was increasing.
The
first issue of the Cleghorn Recorder issued May 28, 1896 reported that
it was one of the best arranged creameries in the western country.
After the creamery closed, the property was purchased by John French who tore it down for the lumber that was in it.
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About
this time the Plymouth Roller Mills Company of LeMars erected the large
grain elevator west of the depot and commenced to operate it. The depot
was soon after built which is a credit to our little town.
Stevens
& Son built the Agricultural implement House now owned by Mr.
Marvin Snyder, and began dealing in Farm Machinery, E. W. Gunther from
South Sioux City purchased lots built a residence and blacksmith shop
and proved to be an industrious man.
Cleghorn Railroad Yards
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Main Street Cleghorn
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Cleghorn Churches
Christian Church
1st Presbyterian Church
Cleghorn Schools
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Early Day Doctors
Dr.
Failing was the first doctor in Cleghorn. He also operated a drugstore
which was the first in town. He delivered the first baby girl
born in the town who was Ricky Ehlers. His wife operated a
millinery shop.
The second doctor was Dr.
Roberts. His office was in the upstairs of a building on main street
owned by Dick Ehlers. Later he built a new office on Main Street. Dr.
Roberts sold out to Dr. McComb who stayed about a year. He sold
out to Dr. Ihle.
Dr. Ihle stated before he passed away that he had d
elivered over a 1,000 babies. Most them he delivered in homes, because
when he practiced, there were no hospitals close to Cleghorn. His
office was where Jan's Beauty Salon is now. (1975)
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Cleghorn’s Fires
Both churches in town had their bells ringing to wake up people. It looked for a time as if the whole town would burn up.
Jim
Spinharney’s general store was two doors south of the blacksmith shop.
Will Springers building was between them. Spinharney had all of his
store good carried out on the street in case his building caught fire.
There
was a good well east of the blacksmith shop. Men with pails of
water started a fire brigade and kept putting water on the Springer
building. A convenient rain prevented total disaster.
Another
major fire in Cleghorn occurred in the spring of 1918 when the wooden
school building in Cleghorn burned to the ground. The fire started
around the chimney so the children and teacher had time to
escape. Some country school buildings were moved into Cleghorn
and the two churches also let the school use their basements to finish
out the spring term.
(Source: Former Cherokee County Historical Society Newsletter, Vol 13, No 1, Jan 1978, pg. 15)
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