being dragged from the premises, he being unable to help himself. Mr. Groff's family barely escaped in their night clothes, as did a clerk who had spent the night in the store.

A fire in the Ossian jail, a few months later, resulted in the death of a vagrant, who, with a fellow transient, had set fire to their straw-filled mattress. An un-named local blacksmith, alerted by their cries, seized a sledge and broke down the jail cell door and dragged them out; but not before both were seriously burned--one expiring from his injuries.

These fires were among the first to be recorded in a disastrous series that culminated in 1896 when much of the town's business district, along with the public school, was destroyed. Fire-fighting, in these early years, was limited to bucket brigades, formed by alerted volunteers. Their efforts were seriously impeded by lack of water that had to be manually pumped from shallow wells with the flow limited by the speed of the man on the pump-handle and the efficiency of this unit.

In response to a request by the Republican in June of 1877, Nathaniel Cornell submitted the following for eastern Military and western Bloomfield townships:

"In this section wheat is good—very good—well started, and bids well to be the best in several years. There is some complaint about the chinch bugs, but we have seen none as yet. Oats are first rate—never better. Barley fair. Grass middling. We have had a pretty hard time with corn—seed poor and weather cold.

We have had to replant, but it is now doing well and we hope for a crop. Potatoes will be excellent, if we can keep the bugs down."

Quite likely, the increasingly large infestations of chinch bugs was the reason that northeastern Iowa slowly changed its agricultural economy from wheat to corn as the major crop.

1878

A severe storm in April demolished a corner of Carl Eiler's hardware store. Sidewalks were reported up-turned; outhouses over-turned and damaged. The town's streets were strewn with dry goods boxes and other debris.

The Republican reported on a new Ossian enterprise: "William A. Laird and Go., a firm composed of Mr. Laird, G. L. Faust and W. L. Warren, have engaged in the manufacture and sale of two valuable articles. One is an evener, or equalizer, for a draft of three horses. Mr. Laird is the inventor. They claim it to be a perfect machine, doing all desired. The other is a simple device—valuable by its simplicity, by which a horse, or team, can be detached, or set loose, from a wagon, or other implement, instantaneously. It is evident that such a device will be of value.

These are entirely new inventions by Mr. Laird; patented, but not for sale as rights, but to be made and sold upon their merits as implements. The firm is preparing to thoroughly introduce them to the trade."

The township officials elected in I878 were: trustees—Andrew Meyer, J. J. Schmitz and John DeCow; assessor—Michael Beck; Justices—James Malloy, Andrew Meyer; constables—C. H. Schultz and J. J. Schimitz.

John Fisher and P. H. Mills issued the following crop report for the area: wheat —poor, not expected to yield over 10 bushels per acre; oats—good; corn—very well; and potatoes--sickly.

Taxes for the township were $4,170.78 on an assessed valuation of $307,458.

The next year, the assessed valuation of farmland was raised to $8.13 an acre.

The Jas. Steinson drug store advises that Ossian residents, who suffer from consumption, dyspepsia and liver complaints, may purchase relief for only 100 a bttl.

The pound-master of Ossian is criticized for locking up a white heifer. He advises that the owner may have his critter by paying for the damages it caused.

The town well was drilled on Main street at the intersection of Lydia this year. An additional assessment of two mills was levied to pay for the well and a hand-