This book is a picture-story history of 101 Fort Dodge homes. It tells the stories of the people who built these homes and those who followed the original residents. Both the homes and their inhabitants reflect the Fort Dodge community over a period of more than 100 years.

All of the homes still exist; the publishers regret the lack of information in the history of many grand old homes that are no longer around.

The homes first appeared in a weekly series in the Fort Dodge Messenger. The photographer’s talent showcases the interests of Allen R. Loomis, a Fort Dodge businessman, whose grandparents—the A. R. Loomises and the Leon Vincents—were well-known business and cultural leaders in the early days of Fort Dodge.

The histories were written by Karl F. Haugen, a retired City Editor of the Messenger. Mr. Haugen spent many hours reviewing state, county, and city records, and talked to numerous people.

To Mr. Haugen and Mr. Loomis, and to everyone who generously and happily collaborated with them, the publishers send a heartfelt thank-you.

BLANDEN FEDERATION OF ARTS
FEBRUARY 6, 1975

O. M. Oleson, a pioneering pharmacist and philanthropist, built this large three-story brick house with a green tile roof in 1906.

Located at 1020 3rd Ave. S., it’s likely the only home in the city that has had a pipe organ for many years. The home was lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Oleson until 1938 when it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Whittemore. Mrs. Whittemore still lives in the house after the death of her husband, who was well-known for his association with the Vincent Clay Products Company here.

The house has a complete basement, a first floor featuring a living room, dining room, and kitchen; 6 a second floor with five bedrooms and two bathrooms; and a third floor with a recreation room and attic storage space.

The pipe organ that Oleson liked to play was taken out of the house before it was sold to the Whittemores and given to the nurses’ home at Lutheran Hospital. The nurses’ home was demolished a few years ago during renovation work at the hospital (now Trinity Regional West).

Oleson was known for his numerous charitable acts. He gave land to the city for Oleson Park in the southeast and Leif Erickson Park in west Fort Dodge. He was the main supporter of Lutheran Hospital when it was established and started operations here. His wife, Julie Haskell Oleson, left over $2 million to the hospital after she passed away.

Oleson was originally from Norway and moved to Fort Dodge as a young man to start a drug business. In 1894, he built a three-story brick building at Central Avenue and Eighth Street, which became the long-time home of his company—the Oleson Drug Company. The first floor and basement were used by the drug company, which operated both retail and wholesale for many years. The second and third floors contained apartments and some offices. The building was demolished in recent years along with other structures to make room for the City Green Parking lot.

Oleson loved good music and in the early 1890s founded the Grieg Male Chorus, serving as its director for many years. The chorus had a spacious hall on the third floor of the Oleson building where members practiced and held social events. His passion for music inspired him to compose as well. One of the pieces he set to music was the famous World War I poem by Col. John McCrae—“In Flanders Fields the Poppies Grow.”

E. H. Rich, a well-known banker from Fort Dodge, built this large brick house at 819 3rd Ave. S. in 1880, and it was continuously occupied by the Rich family until the recent passing of Miss Eva Rich.

Rich arrived in the city in 1874 and served as the cashier of the original First National Bank for many years—a bank that would later be reorganized as the State Bank.

The Rich house sits on a three-lot property at the southwest corner of Third Avenue South and Ninth Street. The foundation of the home is made of large, hand-cut limestone blocks that are 20 inches thick, while the upper walls are 14 inches thick. The soft, reddish brick used for the exterior was made at a local brickyard that used wood logs to fire the kilns back then.

The house has seven bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, a music room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. The attic on the third floor has three big rooms, and there's a fourth floor with two unfinished rooms that can only be accessed by a ladder. The indoor stairway, doors, and trim of the home are made from solid walnut, crafted from local walnut trees.

Originally, the house had seven open fireplaces—four on the first floor and three in upstairs bedrooms. With the introduction of gas heating, these were sealed off, and six of the eight chimneys were taken down. The house is now heated by two hot air gas furnaces.

The house was set up for gas lighting long before city gas was available in Fort Dodge. A big tank filled with naphtha was buried in the backyard, and the naphtha was piped to a gas machine in the basement. The naphtha dripped over a large enclosed rotating drum that produced illuminating gas through evaporation. A pump then pushed the gas into supply pipes. The power for this home gas system came from clockwork gears that were operated by gravity from 2,000-pound millstones. Every evening, it was necessary to wind up the machine before turning on the gas lights.

There were no phones in the town when the house was built, so Rich set up a telegraph line from their home to the bank a few blocks away. Mr. and Mrs. Rich learned the telegraph code, and one day when Mrs. Rich got hurt, she sent her husband a message saying, “Come quick—badly hurt.” Mr. Rich rushed from the bank to their home and found his injured wife. It was believed that the telegraph message saved her life.

In later years, the Rich home was fully updated. In 1973, Willis Rich, the last of the family of seven, sold the house to Bill and Bruce Algood, who are renovating and furnishing it in the style of the time it was built. A large floor mirror from the home was donated by Rich to the governor’s mansion—“Terrace Hill”—in Des Moines.

One of the elegant homes established along Second Avenue South before the turn of the century is now the Women’s Clubhouse, but for many years, it was the residence of United States Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver and his family.

Built in 1895 and located at 915 2nd Ave. S., the large three-story red brick house has been owned by the Women’s Club since 1935. While commonly referred to as the Dolliver house, it was actually built by Sen. Dolliver’s father-in-law, George R. Pearsons, and was occupied by his family for several years. The same year the house was built, Dolliver married Pearson’s daughter, Louise, but it wasn't until Pearson’s death in 1904 that the Dollivers moved into the home.

The home site originally included four lots. Pearsons, a notable early resident, came here as an agent for the Illinois Central Railroad. He served as mayor for two terms and was a member of the school board.

The Dolliver house originally had a living room, a drawing room or music room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a pantry on the first floor; five bedrooms and one large bathroom on the second floor, and other rooms on the third floor. In later years, the upstairs was extensively remodeled. There is a large open staircase that connects the first floor to the upper floors.

In the rounded window area of the living room, there used to be a large stone hollowed out for a small pool. A fountain was in the center of the pool, and water flowed continuously from it. Goldfish in the pool added charm to the unique window setup.

In 1968, the Women’s Club renovated the house, expanded the meeting room on the first floor to the west, took down the old porch, and added a small patio along with a new entrance.

Dolliver was a well-known attorney and legislator from Fort Dodge. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1888 and served there until 1900 when he was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill a vacancy. He was re-elected and served in the Senate until his untimely death on October 15, 1910, at the age of 52.

Sen. Dolliver was a key figure in the Republican party and was well-known across the country. He was highly sought after as a speaker and was referred to as the “silver-tongued orator.” In 1900, he was considered as a nominee for vice president alongside William G. McKinley, who was elected president that year. If he had been nominated and elected, he would have assumed the presidency after the assassination of President McKinley in 1901.

Dolliver hardly spent any time at home here because his family was with him in Washington most of the time he was in the House and the Senate. After struggling with his health for a while, Sen. Dolliver passed away at his home here from what was described as a “heart issue worsened by over-exertion.”

The E. J. Breen Sr. house sits at a visible spot on the southwest corner of Second Avenue South and Tenth Street. Built in 1910, the home has been continuously lived in by the Breen family ever since.

The house at 925 2nd Ave. S. has a red brick exterior with a red tile roof and is one of the solid early 20th-century homes built in this area by well-known families of the city. It features a full basement and three floors. The first floor includes living, dining, and cooking areas; the second floor has four bedrooms, a sleeping porch, and a bathroom; and the third floor contains a ballroom.

The Breen family moved to Fort Dodge in 1904 from Estherville. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Breen, their sons Maurice J. and Edward Jr., and their daughter Paulyne. During their early years in the city, the Breens lived in houses on Fourth Avenue North and Twelfth Street, and on Fifth Avenue South and Twelfth Street, before their home on Second Avenue South was finished in 1910.

E. J. Breen Sr. was in the banking industry—he served as president of the Iowa Savings Bank here and was also president of the Lehigh Sewer Pipe & Tile Company and the Northwestern Portland Cement Company of Mason City for many years. He was the one who organized both of those companies. Breen passed away in 1928.

Mr. and Mrs. Maurice J. Breen and their family moved into the house after the death of Mrs. Breen in 1939. Mrs. Breen still lives there after her husband's passing, and her son, Maurice C., a lawyer from Fort Dodge, resides with her.

Television executive Ed Breen from Fort Dodge now lives on RFD 2, and Mrs. Emerson Dawson, formerly Paulyne Breen, resides at 227 S. 12th St.

Mrs. Dawson, before she got married, taught dance classes in the ballroom on the third floor of the Breen home. She remembers that she often runs into men and women these days who were her students in those classes around 50 years ago.

This big house at 911 3rd Ave. S.—set far back from the street—was built in 1890 by an early businessman, S. J. (Capt.) Bennett, who arrived in Fort Dodge in 1870. It sits at a notable spot on the southeast corner of Third Avenue South and Ninth Street and includes a two-story carriage house at the back.

The three-story house is made of St. Louis granite-brick with Sioux Falls jasper accents, according to an early history of the city. It has a slate roof with copper details. Large porches stretch along the north and west sides of the house.

Since 1923, this spacious home, built by one of the city's most notable early residents, has been owned and lived in by the Schaupp family. The late Judge and Mrs. John M. Schaupp, along with their sons John Jr. and Bradley, and Judge Schaupp's mother, the late Mrs. Emma Schaupp, enjoyed the elegant living spaces in the home.

Judge Schaupp, a Fort Dodge lawyer for many years, was appointed to the Webster County District Court in 1944 and served for 19 years before retiring. He passed away in 1971 at age 80. The family home is now occupied by his son John Jr. The other son, Bradley, lives in Cedar Rapids.

Capt. Bennett, originally from New York, moved west when he was young, spending some time in Ohio and Illinois before settling in St. Louis, where he stayed until the Civil War began. He joined the Union Army and served for nearly five years. He initially served with the 23rd Missouri Infantry and later became the captain of Company A, 12th Missouri Cavalry. After the war ended, his unit was among those sent to confront the attacking Indians in Wyoming.

Mustered out at Fort Leavenworth, he worked in surveying for a while before heading to Boone and then to Fort Dodge. He was in the tobacco business for a bit, then moved on to construction projects for the Northern Pacific Railroad. After leaving the railroad, he settled in Tacoma, WA, and Portland, OR, and at one point was the president of the Tacoma Street Railway system.

Returning to Fort Dodge, Bennett was the president of the Commercial National Bank and the Green-Wheeler Shoe Company. He was involved in community affairs, serving four years on the city council and being elected mayor of Fort Dodge four times. He was also a member of the Board of Supervisors and played a key role in the construction of the current Webster County courthouse. He passed away at his home in 1911 at the age of 81.

This beautiful house at 1218 5th Ave. N. was for many years the home of M. F. Healy, one of Fort Dodge’s and Iowa’s most notable lawyers. The home has many unique features, including a round, tower-like section at one corner that rises from the large front porch to a pointed cupola on the roof.

The three-story house has a living room, library, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor. An open staircase leads to the second floor, which has five bedrooms and a bathroom. On the third floor are three more bedrooms.

Healy lived in the house from when it was finished in 1903 until he passed away in 1929 at 66. He and his wife, who was 65 when she died in 1936, raised a family of six children there. 11

A native of Lansing, Iowa, Healy moved to Fort Dodge with his parents in 1892. He graduated from Notre Dame University, spent a year at Harvard University, and earned his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1885.

He started practicing law in Fort Dodge alongside pioneer statesman and attorney John F. Duncombe. Later, he partnered with his brothers, Thomas D. Healy and Robert Healy, as well as his son, Thomas M. Healy. Other notable attorneys he worked with included A. N. Botsford, D. M. Kelleher, B. B. Burnquist, and Seth Thomas, who later became a federal circuit court judge.

Healy gained recognition both statewide and nationally as a lawyer, speaker, and political leader. He was involved in the Democratic party and attended nine national Democratic conventions. In 1924, he supported Al Smith's nomination for president. He was highly sought after as a speaker and delivered speeches at numerous public events and celebrations.

Failing eyesight affected Healy in the later years of his life, and he became blind in 1916. Despite this challenge, he kept up his law practice until his death 13 years later.

The Healy children included four daughters and two sons—Mrs. Ruth Healy Coughlin, Fort Dodge; Mrs. John (Margaret) Rourke, Providence, R.I.; Mrs. Carl (Eleanor) Mangelsdorf, Rock Island, Ill.; and Mrs. Joseph (Kathryn) Pleck, Evanston, Ill.; Rev. Kerndt Healy, an instructor at Notre Dame University, and Thomas M. Healy, Fort Dodge, both of whom have passed away.

The Healy home is now owned by Larry D. Lee, a math teacher at Fort Dodge Senior High School, who bought it in 1964.

The Laufersweiler home at 904 3rd Ave. S. has its roots in the early days of Fort Dodge. The original part of the house was built in 1866 by Conrad C. Laufersweiler, a pioneering businessman in the city.

In 1892, the house was expanded to its current size and updated. It was lived in by the Laufersweiler family until Elsie Laufersweiler passed away in 1969. The property is now owned by Grace Lutheran Church and is currently rented to the Blanden Federation of Arts, which offers art classes there and runs the Hand Art Shop in part of the house. There's also a ceramics studio with a potter's wheel in the basement.

The two-story house is made of brick with a stucco exterior. It has five rooms and two bathrooms on the first floor and seven rooms and two bathrooms on the second floor. An open staircase with oak railings and spindles connects the first and second floors.

Laufersweiler arrived in Des Moines from Germany in 1854 and stayed for two years. In 1856, he journeyed to Fort Dodge on the Charles Rogers, a steamboat that operated on the Des Moines River between Keokuk and Fort Dodge during those early years. He lived for a while in one of the original fort buildings there.

On arriving in Fort Dodge, Laufersweiler started a furniture and funeral business. He was an experienced cabinet maker and crafted most of his furniture by hand. His three sons—William J., John, and Charles—later joined him in the business.

The furniture store was situated on the south side of Central Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets. It closed down in 1929, but the funeral home has been in operation since it was founded and is currently run by Welch Laufersweiler.

There were 10 kids in the Laufersweiler family—five sons: William J., John, Charles, Albert, and Frank; and five daughters: Mary, Bertha, Kitty, and identical twins Edith and Elsie. Mary was the only daughter who got married. Her husband was Gustav Hilton, and their son is Conrad Hilton, the famous hotel tycoon who visited Fort Dodge in 1953 for the 50th anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce.

Hilton was the guest speaker at an elaborate banquet in the Hotel Warden ballroom. While in the city, he stayed with his aunts at the Laufersweiler home.

One of Fort Dodge’s early businessmen—E. G. Larson—built the home shown above in 1881. It still stands tall and impressive at 300 N. 9th St.

A large porch that used to stretch across the front of the house is now gone, replaced by a small stoop and a second-floor balcony with wrought iron railings. Other than that, the outside look of the home is mostly the same as it was in the 1880s and afterward. In recent years, the brick walls on the outside have been painted white, enhancing the attractive appearance of this timeless home.

The two-story house originally had 13 rooms, which are now split into three apartments—two on the first floor and one on the second. The foundation walls are made of local limestone, and the upper walls consist of four layers of brick that are 16 inches thick.

Larson, originally from Norway, arrived in Fort Dodge in 1868. Having been trained in tailoring, he started working at John W. Hardin’s shop, later moving on to other tailoring shops in the area. In 1872, he opened his own tailoring shop, renting one side of the room that was then occupied by C. Rank’s shoe store. After outgrowing that space, he relocated to Fessler’s building on Central Avenue. A few years later, he rented a new brick building owned by Angus McBane and added a full line of ready-made clothing alongside his tailoring services. His business thrived, and he purchased the building where his store was situated.

In 1892, Larson retired from active business and focused his time on other interests here. In later years, he was involved in banking as an officer and director of the Security Trust & Savings Bank, which operated until the early 1930s. He was also an officer of the Larson Clothing Company, which was sold in 1920 to the Glazers.

There were three sons and two daughters in the E. G. Larson family. They included Ben P. Larson Sr., Olaf Larson, Clarence Larson, and sisters Martina and Louise Larson, who was married to Eugene Gates. Martina Larson lived in the family home until 1935 when it was sold. The current owners of the Larson home are Mr. and Mrs. Orrin R. White, who bought the property in 1947.

One of the city’s most historic houses is this brick home at 1110 5th Ave. N, built by pioneer storekeeper and Indian fur trader David Fessler.

The original part of the two-story house was built in 1869 by Fessler in the northeast section of town to facilitate his fur trading business with the Indigenous people who camped in the nearby northern woods.

Fessler arrived in Fort Dodge from Germany in 1858 and soon after opened a trading post and clothing store. He began his fur trading business in his first small house, which is now the site of the Blanden Art Gallery. Since it was quite a distance to the Indian camp from there, Fessler bought property in the northeast part of the expanding town and built a new home.

The back of the current house is the original section built over 100 years ago. The old brick is still in good shape, as are the stone basement walls. In pioneer times, there were gun slots in the foundation walls for protection against potential Indian attacks.

The house now has four rooms and a bathroom on the first floor and four rooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The property has changed ownership many times over the years and is now owned and lived in by George Bradshaw, an attorney from Fort Dodge, and his daughter, Vivian.

Fessler's house on Fifth Avenue North was said to be one of the biggest and most elaborate of the pioneer homes, featuring a 20x24 parlor. Next to it was the flower room, which had a white gypsum floor, and at the back was the spacious kitchen. The kitchen mainly served as a trading spot with the Native Americans when they came out of the nearby woods to sell their furs. They arrived in groups and always stayed at the house for a meal.

Fessler is also remembered for the buildings he put up along Central Avenue, including the Fessler Opera House, which was a popular entertainment hub for pioneers. Fessler had four sons and three daughters. One of the sons, Louis, served as the county recorder here for many years.

Mrs. Marion Gilday from Fort Dodge is the granddaughter of the late David Fessler. Her father was Louis Fessler.

The big brick house at 1024 3rd Ave. S.—previously known as the Leon Vincent house—was built by a pioneering Iowan who was a civil engineer, railroad builder, and gypsum industrialist. The house was built in 1896 and was home to Mr. and Mrs. Leon Vincent.

The house, made of brick on the outside, now has three rooms and a bathroom on the first floor, four rooms and two bathrooms on the second floor, two bedrooms on the fully finished third floor, and a large finished basement area.

Ownership of the house has changed hands several times since Vincent built it. At one point, it was owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Vincent, and later by Mr. and Mrs. Shirley Thornton. In 1965, the Thorntons sold the property to Mr. and Mrs. Paul C. Eide, who now live there with their family.

Leon Vincent, a first cousin of Webb and Beth Vincent, arrived in Iowa in 1867 and worked as a civil engineer, helping to lay out the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad, which is now part of the North Western system. He continued this work until 1873, when he moved to Fort Dodge.

In 1881, Vincent worked as the assistant cashier at the Merchants National Bank until it merged with the early First National Bank here. He served as the secretary-treasurer of the Iowa Plaster Association in 1891 and was involved in gypsum operations here for many years. In 16 1899, he rebuilt and upgraded the Central Gypsum mill, which was one of the first gypsum plants in the area. When the U.S. Gypsum Company acquired the Iowa Plaster Association in 1902, Vincent continued as the manager of the Blanden mill.

Vincent was involved in various projects, one of which was the design and construction of the current St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, which took the place of an earlier building that was destroyed by a fire. He also contributed to the development and beautification of Oleson Park and the design of 17th Street as a boulevard.

In 1911, Leon Vincent and his brothers Harry S. and Donald Vincent, the sons of Webb Vincent, started Vincent Clay Products, Inc., which ran its large plant at Shady Oaks until just a few years ago. Many of the machines and processes in the plant were inventions of Leon Vincent.

In poor health for many years, Leon Vincent passed away in 1916 at the age of 69. Mrs. Vincent died in 1928 at the age of 81. Mr. and Mrs. Vincent were the grandparents of Al Loomis, the photographer for most of the houses featured in the book.

One of Fort Dodge’s earliest entrepreneurs—John Haire—bought land on North Ninth Street and built the house at 502 N. 9th St. almost 100 years ago. Haire acquired the land on the west side of Ninth Street from Fourth to Eighth Avenues North in 1878 and developed it as Haire’s Seminary Square Addition to Fort Dodge.

Shortly after buying the property, Haire built the house on North Ninth Street. He and his family lived there during his lifetime, and then the property was passed down to his heirs. In 1941, the home was bought by the late Verne Schram and his wife Thora.

The Schrams extensively renovated the home and added a small apartment and garage at the back of the house. Previously, in 1914, Haire’s son Jack had converted the house into apartments. Currently, there are four apartments: three on the first floor and one on the second floor.

John Haire arrived in Fort Dodge from Ireland in 1855 and started a retail business. His store was said to be the third one established in the newly-created town, located at First Avenue South and Sixth Street.

In 1879, Haire was elected as the Webster County auditor and held that position until 1885. He also served as the county clerk of courts and was a member of the Fort Dodge School Board, where he was vice president for 10 years. He retired from active business life in 1870, several years before he was elected to county offices.

Haire and his wife had 10 children: seven sons and three daughters. The sons were well-known in the city's business scene for many years. They included M. J. Haire from Oleson Land Company; W. W. Haire from Sackett & Haire Drugs; Jack Haire from Fort Dodge Lumber Company; Dave Haire, who was the county clerk; Tom Haire from Haire Clothing Store; and Edward and Fred, who were also involved with Sackett & Haire Drugs. The daughters were Anna, Josephine, and Mrs. Margaret Haire Kinney.

Two grandsons of the pioneering businessman live in Fort Dodge—George M. Haire and John Haire, sons of the late Mr. and Mrs. Jack Haire.

The brick house at 530 S. 12th St. was built in 1913 by Dr. Robert Evans, who was a well-known physician and surgeon in Fort Dodge for many years. The two-story home features three rooms on the first floor, three rooms on the second floor, and an attic space with two rooms.

The house is located in part of the Fair Oaks addition to the city, an area that used to be home to the Duncombe deer park and the beautiful gypsum block residence of John F. Duncombe and his wife, Mary. Duncombe was a well-known early attorney and industrialist in this area.

Mrs. Duncombe sold the South Twelfth Street building lot in 1909 to Mercie T. Evans, wife of Dr. Evans. Four years later, the Evans built the brick home that they lived in for many years.

The house has changed hands several times and was once owned by Mr. and Mrs. John P. Barton. Mrs. Barton was a niece of Dr. and Mrs. Evans. After the Bartons passed away, the house was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Al Hayden, who now live in Mesa, Arizona. After some renovations, the Haydens sold the house in 1967 to the Don Slotten family. They then sold the property in 1972 to Mr. and Mrs. Norman Lee Pingel, who currently live there with their family.

Dr. Evans was born in Canada in 1857 and graduated from the Detroit College of Medicine in 1888. He started his medical practice in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and stayed there until 1891, when he moved to Fort Dodge and opened an office in the downtown area at 516½ Central Ave.

In 1908, he teamed up with Dr. C. H. Mulroney and Dr. W. W. Bowen. After 15 months, Dr. Mulroney left the partnership, and Dr. Evans and Dr. Bowen worked together for 24 years in the Snell Building. In the spring of 1932, Dr. Evans retired from active practice, and he passed away unexpectedly at his home in the fall of that year.

Dr. Evans was married to Miss Mercie Thompson from LaCrosse. They had no kids but raised two orphaned nieces, Sarah and Kathryn Thompson. Kathryn was married to John P. Barton, who served as a city commissioner here a few years back. Both of them have since passed away.

Two Fort Dodge doctors and surgeons who worked together for 24 years also lived in the same South Twelfth Street neighborhood. They were Dr. W. W. Bowen, whose home at 628 S. 12th St. is shown above, and Dr. Robert Evans who lived at 530 S. 12th St.

Both houses are made of brick and face east on Twelfth Street. They were built around the same time in 1913. Dr. Bowen bought his lot in 1912 and built the house a year later.

The Bowen residence is now owned and lived in by another doctor and his wife—Dr. and Mrs. Walter E. Gower—who bought the property in 1946. The house has one unique feature—lightning rods on the roof.

The house has five rooms and a half bath on the first floor, four bedrooms and a full bath on the second floor, and two finished rooms on the third floor. There’s a butler's pantry and a second pantry on the first floor, both with their original cabinets. In the butler's pantry, there's a small heating element to keep dishes warm during the winter.

Woodwork in the house still has its original finish and has never been redone. The Gowers have been informed that the great varnish finish is the same as that used on the early Pullman railroad cars.

Dr. Bowen was born in Marion, Illinois, in 1869, and at the age of 15, he moved with his parents to Kossuth County, where the family settled near Algona. He attended the public schools in Algona and later went to Northern Illinois Normal School in Dixon, Illinois. In 1895, he graduated from the University of Iowa Medical College and started practicing medicine in Whittemore. After five years, he sold his practice and went to Berlin, Germany, for a year.

Returning to the United States in 1901, he arrived in Fort Dodge, where he became a well-known physician and surgeon until 1940, when he retired. He and Dr. Evans worked together for 24 years.

Dr. Bowen was involved in medical organizations and served as president of the Iowa Medical Society. He was a founding Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, which was established in 1913.

In 1895, Dr. Bowen married Miss May King, and they had a son, Harold, and a daughter, Lydia. Dr. Bowen passed away in Fort Dodge in 1944 at the age of 75.

An early-day Fort Dodge banker, John C. Cheney, built this home at 1008 3rd Ave. S. in 1896, another example of the beautiful houses built during the 1890-1900 period.

Cheney was one of the founders of the Fort Dodge National Bank (now the First National Bank) and served as its first president when it opened in 1882. He and his wife lived in the home on Third Avenue South until 1913, when J. R. Mulroney bought it. The Mulroney family owned the property until 1931, when Mr. and Mrs. Tom Kelley purchased it.

The three-story house is framed with a spacious open porch in the front. On the first floor, there are a parlor, dining room, library, and kitchen with a breakfast nook that used to be a butler’s pantry. The second floor features five bedrooms and two bathrooms; the third floor consists of a large finished room and storage space.

A first-floor fireplace in the house is special because it won second place at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892-1893. It was reportedly bought by Cheney and shipped to Fort Dodge for his new home that was built shortly after the exposition ended.

The fireplace is made of hand-carved oak with red tiles around the fire area. The decorative mantel above the fireplace features a large mirror with lights on either side. Columns on either side of the fireplace are topped with hand-carved gargoyles.

Mulroney, who used to own the property, was a well-known figure in Fort Dodge and one of the owners and executives of the Mulroney Manufacturing Company. The company made overalls and work clothes for many years and sold them across a large area. The three-story building at First Avenue North and Seventh Street, now home to the Marso & Rodenborn Manufacturing Company, was previously the facility of the Mulroney firm.

Tom Kelley and his wife, Mary Brady Kelley, moved into the house in the fall of 1931. Kelley was a well-known insurance agent who started the Kelley Insurance Agency, now located at 216 S. 8th St. Two of his sons, Robert and Thomas X., are currently working with the firm to continue the business.

Following the deaths of Kelley in 1958 and Mrs. Kelley in 1959, the property was transferred to Robert and Thomas Kelley and their sister, Mrs. Charles H. McCrea of Las Vegas, Nev., formerly Mary Loyola Kelley. The home has been rented for many years and is currently occupied by the Robert Tarbox family.

The large two-story brick and cement-faced house at 400 N. 9th St. has been called the Gillman home since it was built in 1915 by George W. Gillman, a well-known pharmacist and businessman from Fort Dodge.

Gillman lived there until he passed away in 1959. The house is now owned by William J. Thatcher. Two apartments in the home are currently being rented out.

Henry Kehm & Sons—famous brick masons and home builders in the area for many years—built the house for Gillman. It originally featured a living room, sunroom, music room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor; four bedrooms, bathrooms, and a sleeping porch on the second floor. A large attic offered storage space.

Gillman opened his drug store here in 1904 at the southwest corner of First Avenue South and Seventh Street in a new building built by Colby Brothers, who had a livery barn in this area back in the day. The store operated at this location until spring 1974 when it shut down after 70 years of continuous service. Roy W. Gillman, the founder's son, was with the business for 56 years and was the owner until the store closed.

The elder Gillman, who was 79 when he passed away, was born in Nowlin, S. D., and moved with his family to Badger at a young age. As a kid, he worked at the Campbell & Tower drug store and later earned his pharmacy degree from Highland Park University in Des Moines. After working with Campbell & Tower as a registered pharmacist, he opened his own store.

Gillman was involved in pharmacy communities and was a member of the State Board of Pharmacy for 18 years, serving as its chairman multiple times.

Gillman was also into theater and was the president of the Princess Theater Company, which built and operated the Princess here for many years. During his time as manager, the theater showcased some of the best vaudeville around and also hosted amazing shows with famous performers. Eventually, the theater closed down, and in 1939, the building was sold to the First National Bank. It now serves as the bank's location at 18 N. 9th St.

One of the last remaining landmarks in Fort Dodge is the historic Vincent home at 824 3rd Ave. S. The house is now over a hundred years old, having been built in 1871 by James Swain, a pioneer resident of Fort Dodge who was involved in the wholesale and retail drug business.

The house was bought in 1879 by Webb Vincent, an early Fort Dodge businessman and one of the founders of the gypsum industry, which was established here in 1872. At that time, he was teamed up with George S. Ringland and Stillman T. Meservey to set up the Fort Dodge Plaster Mills.

The Webb Vincent family moved into the large home on October 17, 1879. It was continuously occupied by family members until the passing of Mrs. Anne Vincent, widow of Donald Vincent, in 1969.

The house has a red brick exterior—a “soft brick” made from red clay commonly found in this area. The foundation walls are made of limestone set in mortar. These stones, which vary in size and are roughly shaped, create a foundation wall that is about seven feet high. The exterior walls of the house are 30 inches thick, and the interior walls are 24 inches thick.

Rooms in the house are spacious. The ceilings on the first floor are 14 feet high, on the second floor 12 feet high, and on the third floor nine feet high. The third floor had a ballroom, measuring 20 × 50 feet, where many early parties took place.

The Vincent House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and received $1,200 in federal funds for preservation in 1974. The money will be used to restore the third-floor ballroom in the house.

The beautiful home at the northwest corner of Third Avenue South and Ninth Street has been kept in excellent condition over the years. It withstood a fight with the Federal Government in 1957 and 1958 when there were plans to tear it down to make space for the nearby Federal Building and Post Office.

Mrs. Anne Vincent left the historic home to the Fort Dodge YWCA. The YWCA can use the income from a $150,000 trust fund to maintain and redecorate the home. The organization is currently using the home for various gatherings.

Fort Dodge mayor John F. Ford, who served from 1911 to 1919, lived in this Fifth Avenue North home for many years with his wife and five kids. Ford was elected as mayor when the city switched its government structure from the ward system to the current commission system.

The first City Council under the commission system included Mayor Ford, Commissioner Frank W. Collins, and Commissioner C. H. (Cad) Smith. At that time, Collins was responsible for the departments of accounts, finances, public properties, and parks. Smith managed the department of public safety, streets, and public improvements.

The two-story frame house at 1242 5th Ave. N., which the Ford family lived in, was built in 1890 and bought by the Fords in 1895. The home has changed hands several times since the Fords lived there and is currently owned by Mrs. Fatima Habhab, who purchased the property with her late husband, Allie, in 1953.

Ford was well-known in Fort Dodge and Webster County for many years. He was born here in 1864, and when he was six, he moved with his parents to a farm in Jackson Township. He lived on the farm for 21 years before moving back to Fort Dodge. While living on the farm, Ford taught school for 10 years during the winter months.

In 1893, Ford was named deputy county auditor under Auditor T. A. Cunningham and held that position for six years. He was then elected county auditor and served for another six years. Later, he became involved with the R. B. Berryhill store at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Eighth Street, which sold books, stationery, and had a full newsstand.

Ford was an excellent bowler and part of the championship bowling teams in Fort Dodge, along with other famous men of his era.

Mr. and Mrs. Ford had a son and four daughters. Their names were Howard, Mary, Charlotte, Helen, and Alice.

Another significant house along Third Avenue South is the Roberts home at 919 3rd Ave. S., which served as the residence for publishers and editors of The Messenger for many years. Built by George E. Roberts in 1888, this three-story frame house features large porches that wrap around the north, east, and south sides.

Occupying a great spot at the southwest corner of Third Avenue South and Tenth Street, the house has a huge yard that stretches south from the avenue for quite some distance. Big trees also encircle the home.

Beautiful oak and cherry woodwork highlight the interior of the rooms on the first floor. A spacious entrance hall with a beamed oak ceiling welcomes you just inside the front entryway. It showcases oak woodwork and a big fireplace with a carved oak mantel. The open staircase to the second floor is framed by large Grecian-style columns.

The connected library also features a fireplace and stands out with its cherry wood details and large open bookshelves. A big handcrafted wooden archway over a large east-facing window separates the bookshelves. The floors in the entrance hall, library, living room, and dining room are made of oak. There are four bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor, with attic space on the third floor. The house includes a large basement area, which has a cyclone cellar with an arched brick ceiling.

George E. Roberts was an impressive early newspaper professional and also worked for a while as the state printer for Iowa. He progressed from the publishing industry to the role of director of the United States Mint and later held high-ranking positions in banking.

When Roberts left Fort Dodge in 1898, his brother, Charles A. Roberts, took over The Messenger and also bought the house at 919 3rd Ave. S. Charles Roberts ran The Messenger until he passed away on Jan. 1, 1933.

Following the death of Mrs. Roberts in 1957, the Roberts home was inherited by Mrs. John C. Deardorf, the former Catherine Vincent. She currently lives in the stately home.

One of the nice homes in the south part of Fort Dodge is the residence at 1234 6th Ave. S., whose history goes back to the 1870s. Commonly known as the Griffith home, it was lived in by the Frank Griffith family for many years.

City assessor records indicate that the original part of the house at this location was built in 1871, but it was renovated, expanded, and updated years later. Situated on sections of two lots, 25 the residence has a 93-foot frontage on Sixth Avenue South and 106 feet on Thirteenth Street.

John F. Duncombe, a pioneering lawyer, was the first owner of the property before the house was built. He sold the lots in 1861 to William Kellner, who then sold the property to William C. Young. The original house is thought to have been built by Young since he kept ownership of the property until 1883.

Frank W. Griffith, an architect who later managed the U.S. Gypsum plant here, bought the house in 1914. The age of the house is evident in its construction, which features solid walnut studs, walnut floor joists, and walnut sheathing. The foundation walls are made of limestone.

The two-story house has a shingle exterior. The first floor has a living room, an L-shaped dining room, a playroom, a kitchen, a screened-in porch, and a large entrance hall. On the second floor are three bedrooms, a bathroom, a screened-in porch, and attic space.

Griffith arrived at Fort Dodge in 1901 to design the Blanden gypsum mill, located about a mile east of the current Celotex plant. He also oversaw the construction of the American Independent Gypsum Company plant, which was established in 1906.

Griffith then went to Chicago with the United States Gypsum Company and in 1908 was moved to Fort Dodge as manager of the local mill and office. Later, he was moved to Alabaster, Michigan, and then returned to Fort Dodge in 1913 as manager of the U.S.G. plant. He stayed on as plant manager until 1921 when he resigned to go back to architectural work. His son, Stanford W. Griffith, later joined him in the business and is currently the head of the Griffith Company architectural firm here. The elder Griffith continued to work as an architect until his death in 1953.

The Griffith home is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel F. Carney, who live there.

This charming white frame house at 924 5th Ave. N. has a history that goes back to 1880 and was known as the Paddy Butler home from 1901 until 1945. During this 44-year period, it was the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick D. (Paddy) Butler and their family. 26

Earlier, the house was the manse for the First Presbyterian Church and was home to Dr. J. Milton Greene, the church pastor, from 1893 to 1899. During this time, the residence was commonly referred to as the “Preacher Greene” house.

The two-story house features unique bow windows typical of early construction. Originally, it had a parlor, two living rooms, a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a dining room on the first floor. The second floor included three spacious bedrooms, and there was also an attic.

Albert E. Clark, who bought the lot at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue North and Tenth Street in 1880, built the house that same year. He owned the property until 1884, when it was sold to Thomas Sargent, a prominent early resident. Sargent maintained the home until 1893, when it was sold to the Presbyterian Church for its minister, Dr. Greene.

In 1901, the church sold the house to the Butlers, and it stayed in their family until 1945 when it was sold to Effie R. Davis. J. Aaron Davis bought the property in 1958 and lived there until 1970, when he sold it to the current owners, Mr. and Mrs. James E. Ackerman of Des Moines.

Butler, who had owned the house for many years, was a farmer and livestock owner in Webster and Humboldt counties. The family included four daughters and two sons—Mrs. F. E. Ludgate (Josephine), now deceased; Mrs. Mary Savage; and Mrs. T. J. Tokheim (Ina), both from Fort Dodge; and Mrs. George Brennan (Esther) from Littleton, Colorado; John Butler, also deceased, and Harry Butler from Fort Dodge.

Mrs. Tokheim, her husband, and their family lived in Lytton for many years and built a new house while they were there. She was so taken with the bow windows in her parents’ home that they put in similar windows in their Lytton home.

The Butler home was renovated after the Davis family bought it and now has two apartments that the Ackermans rent out.

A well-known farmer from Webster County, who was also an early auto dealer in Fort Dodge, built the home at 1102 5th Ave. N. and lived there with his family for many years.

He was J. B. Black, who bought the property at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue North and Eleventh Street in 1893 and built the house the same year. The site was purchased from David Fessler, a pioneer merchant and fur trader who lived at 1110 5th Ave. N.

Black owned a farm northeast of the city and lived there until the house in town was finished. After moving into town, he continued to run his farm with a hired worker.

The big two-story frame house with a full basement has been expanded and updated since the Blacks lived there. It has changed hands several times and has been owned by Hassan Habhab since 1947. The house now has two apartments that are rented out.

Black got interested in early cars and ran a garage here with a partner, Will Kirkpatrick, under the name Black & Kirkpatrick. The company started in 1908 and operated until 1918. The garage was initially located at 1104 Central Avenue but later moved to different downtown spots. During its 10 years in business, Black & Kirkpatrick was a dealer for EMF and Everett automobiles—both of which have long since disappeared from the automotive scene.

In addition to his farming and auto business, Black was also involved in the butcher shop with the Wolverton Brothers at Central Avenue and Eighth Street in his early days here. Mr. and Mrs. Black had two sons and three daughters—Ben and Irving, Miss Edna Black, Miss Laura Black, and Mrs. Lucy J. Carpenter.

Black-owned farmland at the north end of Dolliver State Park was partially sold to the state when the park was established in 1922. Irving Black also farmed some of the land near the park for many years. The elder Mr. Black spent his later years at his farm home near Dolliver Park and passed away there in 1935 at the age of 79.

President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt was a guest in the Stillman T. Meservey home at 923 1st Ave. S. when he visited Fort Dodge in 1902—the residence that is now the Bruce Funeral Home.

The Meservey home was big and roomy, featuring many stylishly furnished rooms across its three floors. There were seven fireplaces throughout the house that kept the various rooms warm during the winter. The first floor included a living room, dining room, library finished in black walnut, kitchen and pantry, as well as quarters for the butler and maid. Additionally, there was a large reception hall leading to a solid oak staircase that went upstairs.

The second floor had a balcony area at the top of the stairs, five bedrooms, and two bathrooms. The third floor features a full apartment.

Meservey, one of the city's most notable early residents, was born in Clinton, Illinois, in 1848 and moved to Fort Dodge with his parents in 1856. After finishing his education in the local public schools and high school, he graduated from Clinton Liberal Institute with a degree in pharmacy. He returned to Fort Dodge and worked for a while with the Cheney and Meservey drug company. That marked the beginning of his rapid ascent as a merchant, industrialist, banker, financier, and politician.

In 1886, Meservey purchased the property at the southwest corner of First Avenue South and Tenth Street, and in 1890 built a large brick house. It became the highlight of the town and a spot for many social and community events. During this time, the Meserveys hosted President Roosevelt.

Meservey was one of the founders of the gypsum industry here in 1872 and spent many years as the secretary of the U.S. Gypsum Company. He was also involved in civic and commercial projects, including the city's streetcar system. Interested in politics, he was elected to the City Council for several terms and served as the mayor of Fort Dodge for three terms. Additionally, he was elected to the Iowa Legislature.

In 1905, Meservey moved to Chicago where he worked with the U.S. Gypsum Company. In 1908, he sold the house to Thomas D. Healy, and the Healy family lived there for many years. In 1936, it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Byron Wilder, who moved their funeral home there, and it has been used as a funeral home ever since. Mack B. Bruce became involved in the business in 1938, and it operated as Wilder & Bruce until the Bruces bought out the Wilder interest in 1945. Since then, it has been called Bruces Funeral Home.

The son of an early Iowa governor, Charles Larrabee Sr., and his family lived in this house at 1222 6th Ave. S. for many years.

Charles Larrabee was one of seven children of Governor William Larrabee, who was Iowa’s chief executive from 1886 to 1889. Governor Larrabee was born in Ledyard, Connecticut, in 1832 and moved to Iowa in 1853, settling in Clermont, Fayette County. His home, Montauk, is now a historical museum there.

Interested in farming, he started buying land in the northeastern part of Iowa and quickly became one of the largest landowners in the state. In 1867, Larrabee was elected to the Iowa Senate and served for 18 years. He was elected governor in 1885 and served for four years.

Two of Gov. Larrabee’s children became residents of Fort Dodge—Charles and Frederic. Charles was a landowner, banker, and businessman. Frederic was also a landowner and a livestock breeder specializing in purebred Brown Swiss cattle, which won many awards. He also served as a state senator for this district.

The Larrabee home here was built in 1910. The two-story frame house features a spacious front porch with sturdy supporting pillars. A lot of the interior woodwork is solid walnut. The Larrabees owned the house until 1944. Since then, it has changed ownership several times and is currently owned by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Heller Sr. Mr. Heller works in the mechanical department at the Hormel plant here, and Mrs. Heller is a licensed realtor.

The house now has two apartments. The Hellers and their family live in the main part of the home, while the other one is rented out.

The Hellers have seven kids. They are: twins, Dr. Joseph Heller Jr., a pediatrician in Dubuque, and Michael, the marketing director at Emerson Electric in Honeoye Falls, NY; 30 Thomas, the controls manager for United Air Lines in San Francisco, CA; Robert, a computer programmer and analyst at Lockheed Aircraft in Sunnyvale, CA; and David, a student at St. Edmond High School; daughters, Diane, who is married to Richard McCarville from Fort Dodge; and Elizabeth, a student at Iowa Central.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Larrabee Sr. had two sons and a daughter. They are: Charles Jr., a retired Pan American Airlines executive living in Coral Gables, Fla.; Frederic, a law professor in Nashville, Tenn.; and Mrs. Lawrence Heileman, formerly Anne Larrabee, based in Bridgeport, Conn. The elder Larrabees have passed away.

John J. Brennan, a store owner and later a city commissioner, built this large two-story brick house in 1899 and lived there for 24 years. It's located at 560 3rd Ave. N., sitting at the northwest corner of Third Avenue North and Seventh Street.

Brennan and Charles Furlong ran the Furlong & Brennan store here from the late 1890s until 1920 when it shut down. The store, which offered groceries and general merchandise, was situated at the northeast corner of City Square.

The Brennan house originally featured a spacious entrance hall, sitting room, parlor, living room, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, and half bath on the first floor; five bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The Brennan family lived in the house until 1923 when they constructed a new brick home at Sixth Avenue North and Tenth Street. The house at 560 3rd Ave. N. has changed ownership several times and is currently owned by D. R. Gumm from Fort Dodge. The house now has six apartments that the Gumms rent out. A large open porch stretches along the south and east sides of the house.

Brennan was born in Kingston-on-Hudson, NY, and moved to the Fort Dodge area with his parents in 1881. The family settled in Elkhorn Township, where they farmed and raised cattle. In 1886, Brennan’s father, also named John, bought six lots north of Pleasant Valley.

After the Furlong & Brennan store closed, Brennan teamed up with M. J. (Joe) Haire and John Laufersweiler at the Oleson Land Company here. In 1924, Brennan was appointed to the Fort Dodge City Council as the commissioner of parks and streets after Commissioner H. R. Beresford passed away. He served in that position until 1931.

Brennan passed away in 1945 at the age of 84, and Mrs. Brennan died in 1947 at 82. The Brennans had three daughters: Mrs. Edmund Condon from Fort Dodge, Mrs. Norma Kelly from Davenport, and Mrs. Eleanor Lawler, who has since passed away.

The house at 1126 5th Ave. N. was the home of the Robert Healy family for many years. Healy and his brothers, Michael F. and Thomas D., were well-known attorneys in the area.

The home, which has been renovated and updated in recent years, is now owned and lived in by J. A. Leary.

Robert Healy was born in Lansing, Iowa, in 1872 and moved to Fort Dodge with his parents when he was eight years old. After finishing school there, he went to Notre Dame University and later completed his law studies at the University of Michigan. Two of Healy's sisters—Kate and Lizzie—also attended the University of Michigan. While at the university, Robert Healy met Iva Bruce, a student from Birmingham, Mich., and they got married in 1900.

After graduating from law school in 1898, Robert Healy practiced law in Rockwell City for two years. When A. N. Botsford retired, he joined his brothers Thomas and Michael, along with B. B. Burnquist, in practicing law in Fort Dodge.

Later, Robert Healy practiced law solo here for a while, and then he and Maurice Breen were partners for several years until Healy passed away in 1929 at the age of 57.

The house at 1126 5th Ave. N. was built in 1900 and bought by the Healys in 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Healy lived there with their kids, Louise, Iva, and Bruce, until 1917 when they moved to a house a block east. Later, another Healy brother—William—lived there.

Peter Russell, known to many generations of Fort Dodgers, worked for the Healys for many years while they lived at 1126 5th Ave. N. He was a groomsman responsible for the family’s driving horses and a pony, and he also handled yard work. He stayed with the family until he resigned to become a parlor car porter with the Fort Dodge Des Moines & Southern electric line.

Mrs. Robert Healy, now 97, lives in Chicago with her daughter, Louise. Another daughter, Iva, now Sister Jean Gabriel, taught in Rock Island, IL, and St. Louis, MO, and is currently with Cathedral High School in Chicago. Their son, Bruce, lived in Chicago for many years until his recent passing.

This early Fort Dodge home—built in 1866—is special because it is still occupied by a member of the builder's family.

The house was built by Jacob Kirchner, one of the earliest industrial-minded pioneer businesspeople to settle in this growing little town over a hundred years ago. Situated at the southwest corner of First Avenue South and Thirteenth Street, the home has the address 106 S. 13th St.

Elmer Kirchner, the son of this pioneering factory and flour mill operator, and his wife, Wilma, live in this historic home, which they have called their own since 1936. Two other sons of the elder Kirchner also reside in Fort Dodge: Jacob Kirchner Jr. and John Kirchner, both practicing attorneys. Elmer is a retired farm manager and real estate broker. Before the Elmer Kirchners moved into the house, it was occupied for many years by Jacob Kirchner Jr. and their mother. 33

The elder Kirchner built the house after buying Block 18 in the area between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets and First and Second Avenues South. It's a two-story frame house, painted white with green shutters. Since it was built, the house has been remodeled and updated.

Kirchner was born in Germany and, at the age of 2, moved to the United States with his parents. They first settled in Bern Township, NY, and after several years, moved to Iowa, where they settled in the Peterson area. When gold was discovered in Colorado, Kirchner joined the rush, found some gold, and returned home.

Before moving to Fort Dodge in 1866, Kirchner bought and sold thousands of acres of land in Clay County. Upon arriving, he built a sawmill and a sash and door factory at First Avenue South and Twelfth Street. Later, he transformed the sash factory into a large, modern flour mill that produced the finest white flour, whole wheat flour, meals, and various milling staples. He operated the mill for over 30 years. The mill eventually closed down, sat idle for six years, and then burned to the ground in 1912.

Kirchner was involved in Fort Dodge events, helped start the Commercial National Bank, and served on the City Council in 1874, 1875, 1879, and 1880. His brother Christian was also elected to the council from a different ward. The elder Jacob Kirchner passed away in 1909; Mrs. Kirchner died in 1962.

A former treasurer of Webster County and an officer at a brick and tile company built the original part of this large home at 1333 2nd Ave. S. in 1891. His name was John H. Abel, and he was originally from Germany. He moved to the United States in 1867 when he was 13 and spent several years living on a farm in Colfax Township.

In 1888, Abel moved to Fort Dodge, and three years later, he bought two lots at the southwest corner of Second Avenue South and Fourteenth Street, where he built his home. In 1904, he expanded the house.

W. H. Koeper bought the home in 1934, expanded and renovated it into a funeral home, which he ran until selling the business to L. O. Guenther in 1947. Guenther merged the business with Bruces in 1972, and the house was later sold to Mr. and Mrs. Raphael Halligan of 1415 2nd Ave. S. They then did some additional remodeling and now have two apartments in the house that are rented out.

Abel was involved in several activities here before being appointed deputy county treasurer in 1892 under C. W. Newton. He held this position until 1896 when he was elected treasurer for two terms.

After leaving the county treasurer’s office, Abel became interested in the brick and tile business and served as president of the Fort Dodge Brick & Tile Company from 1900 until 1922. This clay plant was located in the northwest part of the city, near the east end of the Hawkeye Avenue bridge over the Des Moines River. The brick plant was sold in 1922, but it continued operations for a while before eventually shutting down. Abel retired from active work after the clay plant was sold.

Abel was interested in other businesses in Fort Dodge, including the Fort Dodge Serum Company, Plymouth Gypsum Company, and the Fort Dodge Foundry. He was also a director at the Fort Dodge National Bank (now the First National Bank) in its early years.

Active in church work, he served as the treasurer of the Iowa District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod from 1893 to 1912. He passed away in 1946 at the age of 91. Mr. and Mrs. Abel were the parents of two daughters and a son—Miss Mathilda Abel, now deceased, Mrs. W. H. (Amanda) Koeper, and A. C. Abel, who was the assistant postmaster in Fort Dodge for many years.

This big house was built in 1902 by John W. Amond, a well-known coal dealer and landowner in Fort Dodge. Located at 1024 6th Ave. N., it features a spacious open porch that runs along the entire south side and part of the east side—one of the few homes here with such a large porch. Ionic columns hold up the roof over the porch.

The first floor includes a parlor, living room, dining room, kitchen, and butler’s pantry, along with a hallway and vestibule. A large open staircase with a landing area leads to the second floor, which has five bedrooms and a bathroom.

All the rooms on the first floor have parquet oak floors, oak trim, and the stairway nook is paneled in oak. Ionic columns and an archway lead into the spacious dining room, which features a plate rail and a built-in china cabinet. The living room has its original fireplace with a tiled hearth and a red oak mantel topped with a large mirror.

The original chandeliers in the downstairs rooms are a mix of gas and electric, and there's a large art window on the east side with stained and leaded glass. A big two-story carriage house sits at the back of the lot.

Amond was born in Alsace-Lorraine (now part of France) in 1861 and moved to the United States with his parents, who settled in Illinois. Later, the family moved to Iowa and bought farmland near Barnum. Amond purchased large areas of land in Webster County, which he farmed for many years. Additionally, he owned a coal mine southeast of the city and was involved in the coal business here for many years, with offices on Central Avenue and South Eighth Street.

Mr. and Mrs. Amond had six kids, three of whom passed away in their early years. The others were Mrs. Edna Hogan, a well-known artist and widow of Jack Hogan from Fort Dodge; Mrs. Bernard Steinle; and Jack Amond, both of whom have also passed away. Jack Amond worked in the coal business with his father and managed the family farms until he died. He and his wife, Eva, moved into the Sixth Avenue North house in 1929. Now, the property is owned by Mrs. Peter (Eva) Paterson.

The Amond Coal Company stopped operating here in 1945 after being in business uninterrupted since 1895. Amond passed away in 1925 at the age of 64. Mrs. Amond died in 1949.

Mr. and Mrs. Dennis M. Kelleher built this home at 701 Crest Avenue in Snell Place in 1921 and lived there with their family for 26 years. Kelleher, a well-known attorney in Fort Dodge, practiced law here for over 60 years and was recognized for his legal work.

The house, built with brick and wood, is spacious and has rooms on the first and second floors, as well as in the basement. The first floor includes a living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, sunroom, three bedrooms, and a bathroom. There are fireplaces in both the living room and family room. On the second floor, you'll find three more bedrooms, a bathroom, and a large walk-in linen closet. The basement features a drive-in garage and five rooms, including a large recreation room. There's also a screened-in front porch.

The house has changed hands only twice since it was built. In 1947, the Kellehers sold the place to the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Dodge, and it served as the home for the church's ministers until 1960. On May 25, 1960, it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Maurice E. Stark, who currently live there with their family. Stark is a well-known tax attorney.

Kelleher died in 1964 at age 92 after a distinguished legal career here since 1902. After graduating from the University of Iowa law school in 1893, he started his law practice in Des Moines and then moved to Pomeroy, where he stayed until relocating to Fort Dodge.

He worked with several attorneys from Fort Dodge, including the Healy brothers, William S. Kenyon, Maurice O’Connor, Richard F. Mitchell, and his son John Kelleher. During World War I, Kelleher was appointed to the War Trade Board in Washington, D.C., by President Woodrow Wilson. Later, he became the solicitor for the Bureau of Internal Revenue and a special assistant to the United States Attorney General, handling cases across the country.

Mr. and Mrs. Kelleher had five kids—Leo from Fort Dodge; John from Waukegan, IL; Edward and Mrs. John Staff from Milwaukee, WI; and Mrs. James Hart from Highland Park, IL. Mrs. Kelleher now lives at the Marian Home in Fort Dodge.

This Second Avenue South home has been recognized for years by the giant oak tree in the front yard. Said to be over 100 years old, the tree still stands in the yard at 1010 2nd Ave. S.

The house was built in 1909 and was home to the Donald Vincents and their daughters, Catherine and Nancy, until 1932 when they relocated to the historic “Vincent House” at 824 3rd Ave. S. Currently, the house is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Jahn Jr., who bought the property in 1951.

Mr. and Mrs. Vincent purchased the building lot in 1908, and the next year, they built a spacious two-story brick house. The first floor includes a living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, and bathroom; the second floor has four bedrooms and a bathroom. The finished attic has one room.

The front yard tree—called the “Hawkeye Oak”—was once celebrated as the best example of its species (burr oak) in Iowa. It was graceful and majestic in its earlier years, with branches that spread out well over the sidewalk and street. At one point, it was awarded a plaque from the Garden Club of Iowa for its impressive look and age.

The tree has now lost many of its majestic branches, and not much attention is given to it these days. The removal of the lower branches began several years ago when a house mover chopped off one limb. In an effort to make it look symmetrical, other branches were then trimmed as well.

After Mr. and Mrs. Vincent and their family moved out of the home that was rented by Mr. and Mrs. Alan Loth from 1932 to 1945, Mrs. Winston O. Larrabee, the widow of Charles Larrabee Sr., bought the property in 1945 and lived there until she sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Jahn in 1951.

Donald Vincent was well-known in business and industry, being one of the founders of the Vincent Clay Products Company and served for many years as an officer of the Fort 37 Dodge Grocery Company. He was also involved in local banking, having been president of The State Bank for many years. Jahn is in the furniture refinishing and upholstering business. He and his wife are also antique collectors and have renovated the interior of their home to showcase their collections. They also own the adjacent corner house, which they are turning into a future gift and antique shop.

Residents of the city who've lived here for around 50 years will likely remember that this home was commonly referred to as the “electric house” in the mid-1920s. Built by A. S. Jackman, a Fort Dodge electrician, the house located at 1117 N. 19th St. is currently owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Merlin B. Hays and their family.

The house was one of the first constructed in the Elmhurst Acres area just west of Dodger Stadium. It's situated on a lot with a 120-foot frontage on Nineteenth Street, extending 265 feet eastward to the stadium parking lot.

Jackman, who owned the Jackman Electric Company at 924 Central Avenue, built the two-story brick home in 1923, featuring the most modern electrical installations of that time. Once it was finished, Jackman, in partnership with the Fort Dodge Gas & Electric Company, organized an open house and invited residents of Fort Dodge and the surrounding areas to visit. The latest electrical appliances, like refrigerators, washing machines, toasters, and more, were on display, along with stunning electrical fixtures in the different rooms.

The basic layout of the home hasn't changed much over the years, but owners have done a lot of remodeling to suit their needs. The first floor features spacious living and dining rooms, a family or TV room, a kitchen, and a bedroom with a half bath. The second floor includes three bedrooms and a full bathroom. There's also a large floored attic and a full basement. The house originally had a tiled roof, but it's been replaced with a new type of roofing. All the gutters on the house are made of copper. The home is set back a considerable distance from Nineteenth Street, and there's a circular driveway leading up to the house.

Mr. and Mrs. Hays bought the house in 1959 from John and Ann Doud, who had acquired it in 1955. Previous owners included Arthur Westerman, Richard Paul, and Robert Lentz.

Hays, the current owner of the lovely home, is a virologist at Fort Dodge Laboratories. He and his wife have four kids—three boys and a girl.

This Fort Dodge home—known for many years as “the Minkel house”—has a history that goes back almost 100 years, as it was built in 1876, according to county records. Located at 1008 6th Ave. N., the house has been remodeled several times over the years and is currently owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Moses. They bought the property in 1961 and added a combined living room and bedroom with a bath on the east side.

The house now features a living room, dining room, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms on the first floor, with two additional bedrooms upstairs. The two wood-burning fireplaces—one in the living room and the other in the east bedroom—have been converted to gas.

The house got the Minkel name because it was owned and lived in by L. H. Minkel, the Fort Dodge school superintendent, and his family for many years. Minkel moved to Fort Dodge to take the school position and served as superintendent until 1923. The Minkel family lived in the Sixth Avenue home during this time and for many years after when Minkel was in the insurance business here. The Minkel heirs sold the home to Mr. and Mrs. Louis C. DeFoe, who then sold it to the Moses family.

Mr. and Mrs. Minkel had five kids—Lewis Minkel, who is now retired and living in Laguna Hills, California; Eleanor, who has passed away and was married to Roger Files from Fort Dodge; Dr. Roger Minkel, who is also deceased; Elizabeth (Betty) Myser from Ketchikan, Alaska; and Willard Minkel from La Mesa, California.

Minkel bought the house when he arrived in the city in early 1911. John F. Duncombe, a pioneering attorney and industrialist from Fort Dodge, acquired the lot where the house stands in 1864. In 1872, he sold the lot to Julia A. Ingersoll, and it was during her ownership that the 39 home was built.

Stories about the house say it was once lived in by a Dutch sailor who built a cupola in the style of a ship's pilot house on the porch above the front entryway. It was taken down many years ago.

Mr. Moses, the current owner of the house, is a conductor for the Illinois Central Railroad. He and his wife have three daughters, all of whom are married and living in different places.

An early lumber dealer—Owen Conway—who arrived in the United States in 1845 from Ireland and came to Fort Dodge in 1865, built the house at 400 S. 8th St. in 1882.

Conway, who was in the hardware and lumber business here, lived in the home with his family for many years. The house stayed in the Conway family until 1946 when it was sold to John J. Williams. It was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Ray Howick, who remodeled the first floor into a spacious apartment for themselves. Mrs. Howick still lives in the home after her husband's passing.

A big porch stretches across the front of the house that faces east. Square columns sitting on railing posts hold up the porch roof and are connected by decorative wood trim. The house's windows have unique outdoor arched tops, and there are pointed dormers with windows on all four sides of the roof.

The house originally had a living room, parlor, dining room, master bedroom and bathroom, and kitchen on the first floor; six bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The second floor has been transformed into a spacious apartment with three bathrooms, and there’s also an apartment on the third floor. The rooms downstairs are large with high ceilings, the floors are made of oak, and the doors have double board casings.

Conway's first business in the city was a hardware store, and in 1869 he started a lumber business at First Avenue South and Fifth Street, which operated until 1939. Conway's sons, James and John, worked alongside him for many years. After the business was incorporated in 1914 as the Conway Lumber Company, the company included Owen, John, James, and Ed Conway, who was the son of John Conway.

James, Dave, and Eustace Conway, the sons of the pioneer, ran a general store at 612 1st Ave. S., while Dave, Eustace, and Owen P. Conway also operated a general store and lumber yard in Moorland. Two other sons were in business in Clare—F. D. Conway, dealing in lumber and grain, and C. P. Conway, who managed a general store. The elder Owen Conway passed away in 1916.

Two grandchildren of the founder of the Conway companies live in Fort Dodge. They are Miss Delores and Owen Conway. There are also two great-grandsons living here—Ray and Robert Conway.

Franz Thiede, who ran a brick factory here for many years, built this large brick home in 1890. The 14-room house at 520 N. 2nd St. has hardly changed since it was built and is currently owned by his son, Frank Thiede, and the estate of the late Elma Thiede.

The house sits at the back of a lot that is 160 feet wide on Second Street and extends 230 feet deep. The first floor of the spacious, strong home features a hall, parlor, living room, dining room, sunroom, kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. There are six bedrooms on the second floor.

Rooms on the first floor have 10½ foot ceilings, and the woodwork throughout the house is made from local lumber. The hall and parlor feature walnut woodwork, as does the staircase to the second floor. Other rooms have oak woodwork and oak floors. The doors and woodwork in the house shine with the original varnish applied in 1890.

Thiede was born in Germany and studied masonry and architecture there. He moved to the U.S. in 1858 and, at 21, arrived in Fort Dodge and started working in masonry. In 1883, he and Charles Heileman founded a brick manufacturing company and built a plant near the east end of the Hawkeye Avenue bridge over the Des Moines River.

The plant operated as Thiede & Heileman until Heileman's death in 1895. In the spring of 1896, the company was reorganized as Thiede & Company. 41 Later, the name was changed to the Fort Dodge Brick & Tile Company and kept this name until the plant was sold in 1922.

The company produced high-quality paving, building, and sidewalk bricks and blocks, along with drain tile. One of the firm’s specialties was premium white pressed brick that was used in many homes and commercial buildings here. A lot of the brick used for paving the streets in the city during the early days came from the Thiede plant.

Thiede built several downtown buildings, including houses, and was involved in constructing St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. After a long and successful career in the city, he passed away in 1925 at the age of 88.

A house designed like a “cozy cottage in Norway” is the Olson home at 1301 3rd Ave. N.—the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Evan Olson, their son Bjorn, and their daughter, Mrs. Doris Olson Wood, for many years.

The Olsons were women’s clothing designers and tailors, and their skillful work was well-known. Olson and Mrs. Wood were also artists, and their paintings earned them a broad reputation.

The Olson house, which has rooms on the first and second floors, was built in 1897 on a lot across the street from where it is now. The original site was at the east end of Johnson Place. When this block-long street was created from Twelfth to Thirteenth Streets in 1911 to provide building lots in an area that was previously hard to reach, the Olson house was moved to the southeast corner of Third Avenue North and Thirteenth Street—its current location.

The house stayed with Mrs. Wood for many years after her parents passed away, and she continued her tailoring and art work there. After she died, the property was sold in 1969 to Mrs. Helen L. Moreland, who currently lives there.

Olson created a lot of impressive oil paintings in his free time from tailoring. Mrs. Wood focused mainly on watercolors. They both spent hours sketching in the wooded areas around the city and then finished their paintings at home. Mrs. Wood also traveled to 42 Norway, where she did a lot of sketching and painting. As a result, many of her watercolors depicted scenes from Norway. She also produced paintings of farms and rural landscapes.

Mrs. Wood designed and decorated her kitchen in the style of Norwegian kitchens. It became so popular that a picture of it and a story about her work were featured in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The interior of the home has been remodeled by Mrs. Moreland, and the downstairs now includes a living room, two bedrooms, and a kitchen. The second floor has one bedroom and a bathroom. The walls have been painted, new floors installed, and jalousie doors put in. The exterior of the house is painted red, and five different types of ivy are growing on the outer walls.

This was the home of a pioneer businessman and early railroad official—Thomas H. Wright. Built in the late 1880s, the house at 209 S. 7th St. has been owned and lived in by members of the Wright family ever since. There have been many updates to the home since it was built. In the late 1930s, it was modernized, a new entrance was added, and brown cedar shingles were put on the exterior.

Isaac Garmoe, another pioneering businessman in the area, purchased the property in 1873. A decade later, it was sold to Thomas H. Wright, who later built the house that is still owned by his two daughters—the Misses Marie Wright and Florence Wright. Marie is a retired social studies teacher from Fort Dodge Senior and Junior High School; Florence is the former organist at First Presbyterian Church.

The two-story frame house has two living rooms, a dining room, and a kitchen on the first floor; three bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. A garage is at the back of the lot where there used to be a two-story barn that held the family’s horse, buggy, and sleigh.

Mr. Wright was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1840 and moved to the United States in 1871. He relocated to Fort Dodge in the early 1880s, where he worked as the trainmaster for the Illinois Central Railroad's Sioux City division. Later, he became an owner and partner in the hardware business here with S. J. Robertson. Their store was located at Central Avenue and Sixth Street. 43

After retiring from the hardware business, Mr. Wright got into real estate and insurance. He was also an officer and director of the First Trust & Savings Bank, which used to be part of the old First National Bank, now known as the State Bank. Always community-oriented, Wright was on the public library board during the time of Capt. W. H. Johnston, one of the city’s early library presidents. He was also a member and officer of the First Presbyterian Church.

There were six kids in the Wright family—two boys who passed away during a diphtheria outbreak; Marie and Florence Wright; Thomas H. Wright Jr., who died in Cedar Rapids in 1970; and Robert L. Wright from Oklahoma City. The older Mr. Wright died in 1932 at the age of 92.

This house at 1040 9th Ave. SW has been recognized as the home of Fort Dodge’s “Santa Claus” for the past 39 years. “Santa Claus” is, of course, Van J. Ault, 79, who served as the official Santa for the Boston Store here for 25 years and during that time welcomed thousands of kids in the store’s toyland.

Van retired from his interesting job a few years back, but occasionally he puts on the red and white costume and shows up at a party. He estimates he has played the role of "Santa Claus" for a total of 49 years. While he spent a lot of time as Santa, he was a meat cutter by trade and worked at the A. & P. Store here many years ago. Later, he and his son John bought the Kubicek Grocery on Tenth Avenue Southwest and ran it for a while.

The Ault home is located on land that was once owned by Major William Williams, who laid out Fort Dodge in 1854 and served as its first mayor and postmaster. The property has changed hands many times since then and was purchased by Van’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. 44 John Ault, in 1905. The first recorded deed for the property dates back to 1864, transferring it to C. C. Smeltzer.

The original part of the current house was built in the 1860s. Since then, it has been extensively modernized. Van and his wife bought the property in 1936 and have lived there ever since. When it was built, the house had four rooms, no porches, and the exterior featured 1 × 12 vertical siding. Van expanded the house by adding two rooms, a bathroom, two large porches, and a full basement. Van’s brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Winneka, owned the house before the Van Aults purchased it.

Mr. and Mrs. Ault had four kids—Robert who works at the Celotex Corporation in Knoxville, Tenn.; John who runs Big John’s Place; Ray, who owns Ray’s Meat Market; and Mrs. Paul (Lola) Lynch from Pioneer.

This solid brick home was built 80 years ago in northeast Fort Dodge when there was only one other house (the Lou Alger home) to the east of its location at 1831 10th Ave. N.

Known for years as the Lohr home, it has changed hands several times and for the past 29 years has been owned and lived in by a number of prominent business and professional people in the area. The current owners are Mr. and Mrs. M. James Hutchison, who have been residing in the home since 1967.

The two-story house has a one-story brick extension on the east side that was built in recent years. The walls of the original home are made of solid brick, which was very popular over seventy-five years ago. The first floor includes the family room in the extension, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen and a bathroom, while the second floor has three bedrooms and another bathroom.

The outside brick is painted white, and the windows have black shutters. The roof overhang is also painted black to match the roof. The house sits on two lots, with a 75-foot frontage on Tenth Avenue North and a depth of 190 feet. 45

The house was built in 1895 by Michael Lohr, who arrived in the United States from Germany and settled in Fort Dodge in 1894. He bought a 3.5-acre piece of land along Tenth Avenue North from David A. Haviland, who had obtained it from the federal government in 1857; built the house, and lived on this property for many years.

Lohr’s son, Peter J. Lohr, bought the house and the nearby property in 1911 and kept it until 1941, when he transferred ownership to his daughter, Alice M. Thomas. In 1946, Warren A. Downs, the manager of the Sears store, purchased the home from Alice M. Thomas and her husband, Bernard J. Thomas. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas lived in the house from 1938 to 1946.

Later owners and residents of the home included L. H. and Virginie Anderson from the Jones Piano House; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kirkberg from Kirkberg Jewelers; Mr. and Mrs. Jon McClure from McClure Engineering; and Mr. and Mrs. Hutchison, the current residents. Hutchison is the president of First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Fort Dodge. The house has been significantly remodeled and updated in recent years.

Peter J. Lohr, who owned the property for many years, farmed east of the city before moving into the home. He then worked for the Thompson Buttertub Company here and later became a rural mail carrier. Three of his sons—Ray, Clarence, and Walter—live in the city.

Architecture of the late 19th century includes this large house at 302 S. 8th St., which has now been converted into a four-apartment building. Built in 1875, the two-story frame house was owned and occupied for many years by Robert W. Crawford, an early pharmacist in Fort Dodge.

Two large Ionic columns mark the main entrance on the east side of the house, which is located at the southwest corner of Third Avenue South and Eighth Street. Crawford bought the lot where the house sits from Thomas Snell, a pioneering real estate dealer in the area. The house has changed hands only a few times since Crawford built it, and it is currently owned by Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Salvatore, who acquired it in 1965. There are two apartments on both the first and second floors. One of the downstairs apartments is occupied by the Salvatores.

All of the rooms are spacious and reflect the style of the period when it was constructed. One of the living rooms downstairs features the original fireplace, and there is a charming circular staircase that leads to the upstairs.

Crawford was in the wholesale and retail drug business during the early years of Fort Dodge. He built a large building at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Sixth Street—known as the Crawford Block—where his store was located. The building was destroyed in the massive fire that hit the area in December of 1956.

A product called “Gopher Death” was created by Crawford and was made and distributed by the Fort Dodge Chemical Company that he founded. The product was sold all over the country. In 1945, the company was bought by Jewell A. Johnson, a druggist from Fort Dodge, who ran the business until he sold it in 1970.

There were three kids in the Crawford family—a daughter and two sons. The daughter, Mary, was married to E.F. Armstrong, a long-time pharmacist at the Oleson Drug Company. Mrs. Armstrong was well-known in Fort Dodge and Iowa; she taught English in high school and was appointed to the State Conservation Commission. The sons were Charles, who ran the Crawford Hotel here, and Robert, who is now a doctor in Burlington.

Crawford-Armstrong addition in the north part of the city was opened by the two families it was named after, and Crawford-Armstrong Park was their gift to the city.

Another one of Fort Dodge's brick homes built by pioneer businessmen is the one shown above, which dates back to 1871. Built by John M. Mulroney, it is located at 302 S. 7th St.

The two-story house was made of soft red brick produced by one of the city’s early brick factories, and they are mostly in good shape after more than 100 years. The basement walls are made of local stone.

Additions have been made to the house since it was built—on the west and south sides. The original part of the house has seven large rooms, a hallway, and a stairway and is now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Janssen, who bought the property in 1944. The additions to the house contain apartments.

John M. Mulroney was born in Ireland in 1832 and moved to the United States at 16. He took part in the 1849 gold rush in the West and found success there. He then returned to the Midwest and settled in Emmetsburg, where he got involved in the cattle business. He married Jane Evans there in 1858, and they moved to Fort Dodge. Upon arriving, he purchased and ran a general store on the south side of the City Square. Later on, he sold the store and, along with Webb Vincent, E. H. Rich, and G. L. Rich, helped establish the original First National Bank here.

Mulroney and his wife Jane were parents to the following children: Mary, who married Ed O’Connell; John E. Mulroney, the father of attorney John Mulroney, who served as a judge on the U.S. Tax Court in Washington, D.C. for many years; and Joe, Will, and Louis, all of whom were involved with the Mulroney Manufacturing Company, which originally had its plant at Central Avenue and Tenth Street, now the site of Wahkonsa Manor. After a fire destroyed the plant, the company built a three-story brick building at First Avenue North and Seventh Street, which is currently home to the Marso & Rodenborn Company.

Two other sons were Charles, a doctor who had been practicing here for several years, and Edward, a lawyer living in Missoula, Montana. After the death of his first wife, Jane, J. M. Mulroney married Hannah Byrne from Moorland. They had two sons—Robert, a lawyer also practicing in Missoula, Montana, and Frank, who worked at the Flaherty & Mulroney clothing store here.

A big barn was built southwest of the Seventh Street house to store the horses, carriages, sleighs, and racing carts that Mulroney owned. He typically had one or more horses in local county fair harness races. A large box stall in the barn was used as a boxing ring.

Two grandsons and one great-grandson of pioneer John M. Mulroney live in Fort Dodge. They are William V. (Bill) and Richard J. (Dick) Mulroney, who run the Mulroney Insurance Agency established by their father, Will Mulroney; and Gary Mulroney of Mulroney Construction Company, the great-grandson.

The old First Methodist Church parsonage, where the author of the popular novel “One Foot in Heaven” grew up, is located at 1518 3rd Ave. N.

Hartzell Spence was the author, and his father, Rev. W. H. Spence, was the pastor of the church here from 1909 to 1917. The story tells about the life and experiences of Rev. Mr. Spence and his family during their time here and in other parishes. After the novel was published, it was turned into a successful movie in the early 1940s.

The Rev. Mr. Spence, 34, was assigned to the Fort Dodge church in 1909, and Hartzell Spence recalls in his book that President William Howard Taft visited the city shortly after that to see U.S. Senator J. P. Dolliver. The President gave Hartzell a “pat on the head” during that visit, he notes.

The original Methodist church in Fort Dodge was built at the southeast corner of Second Avenue South and Seventh Street in 1858. The second church was constructed at the northeast corner of First Avenue North and Tenth Street and dedicated in 1878. This church, which is the focus of the novel, was an impressive red brick building with a tall steeple. Right to the east of the church was a large two-story wooden parsonage built in 1893, which was the home of the Spences.

This parsonage was in use until 1914 when it was sold and relocated to the Third Avenue North spot, where it is currently owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. C. P. McGrane. The house had to be moved to clear the area for the current First United Methodist Church, which was dedicated in 1915. First Church now has its parsonage at 1211 N. 11th St.

Mr. and Mrs. McGrane bought the property at 1518 3rd Ave. N. in 1939 and have lived there ever since. It has been thoroughly remodeled and updated, now featuring four rooms, a bathroom, and a music room on the first floor, along with four bedrooms and another bathroom on the second floor.

The novel by Hartzell Spence tells the story of the destruction of the old red brick church in 1914 and the construction of a tabernacle one block east of the church site, where services were held until the new building was finished. A significant portion of the book focuses on the life of the Spence family in Fort Dodge, including many childhood events in Hartzell’s life presented in a fictional style.

The Rev. Mr. Spence left Fort Dodge in 1917 to lead a church in Omaha. Later, he took on Methodist roles in Sioux City (Morningside College) and Mason City.

One of Fort Dodge’s early residents, who ran a well-known livery business here for many years, built the house shown above in 1885.

He was W. H. H. Colby who arrived in Fort Dodge in 1870 and started a livery and lumber business. Fifteen years later, he built the home at 215 N. 15th St., which is now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Hilken and their family. The Hilkens bought the property in 1963 and live there with their children, David, Janet, and Danny. Hilken works at the Geo. A. Hormel & Co. plant.

The single-story frame house faces west and is set back far from Fifteenth Street. It includes a living room, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a full basement. An open porch runs along two sides of the house. In previous years, the house has been remodeled and updated.

Colby was born in Vermont in 1840 and moved to Wisconsin in 1859, where he ran a livery business in Sun Prairie. After 11 years, he and his family relocated to Fort Dodge, where he started his livery and lumber business. After a while, he decided to leave the lumber business to focus entirely on the livery and transfer business.

Colby’s brother, Charles, worked alongside him in the business known as W. H. H. Colby & Bros. The company handled livery services, hacks, and a bus and baggage transfer service. Their horse-drawn vehicles were available to meet all the trains arriving at different railroad depots in the city, transporting passengers and their luggage to hotels and homes.

The Colbys built a large brick building on the north side of City Square where they ran their extensive business. Their address was listed in old city directories as 426-428 Central Avenue.

After building the house on North Fifteenth Street, Colby bought the half-block area just north of it. Locals remember he used to take many horses from his livery barn out to this area to graze on the grass.

There were two kids in the W. H. H. Colby family—a son, Fred G. Colby, who worked as a bookkeeper for the livery company; and a daughter, Miss Nellie Colby.

Frank Ulish bought the Colby house in 1936, and the Ulish family lived there until 1949 when it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Glen E. Yates. Before the Hilkens purchased it, the property was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Everett W. Mason.

A well-known furniture dealer—A. D. (Archie) McQuilkin—who advertised “The Big Store With Little Prices,” built this lovely home just a short walk from the business district in 1911.

McQuilkin started his business here in 1902 and nine years later built this home on South 12th St. It is now occupied by Mrs. E. B. Dawson, who, along with her late husband, Dr. Dawson, bought the property in 1937.

The two-story brick house faces west at the corner of Third Avenue South and Twelfth Street. Originally, the first floor had a living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway, while the second floor had four bedrooms, a sewing room, and a bathroom. Over the years, the interior was remodeled, adding 1½ more bathrooms and paneling the basement for a recreational space. A study area with bookcases and a workshop for the late Dr. Dawson were also finished.

McQuilkin was born in Pennsylvania in 1864. His father was a farmer who moved to Iowa and settled in Benton County in 1866. McQuilkin stayed on the farm until he was 15 before moving to LaPorte City, where he worked as a clerk in a drugstore. Later, he ran a meat market for four years and then became a traveling salesman for a publishing company.

He started his career in the furniture business in Burlington and stayed there for 11 years. In 1902, he moved to Fort Dodge and opened a furniture store at 817 Central Ave. As business grew, he bought the lot next to his first store and in 1913 built a six-story building that the McQuilkin company occupied for many years with a wide range of furniture, carpets, queen's ware, and related items. The company operated until 1943 when it was sold to the Home Furniture Company, which then took over the large building. The Home later relocated to 611 Central Ave.

The main floor of the McQuilkin Building is currently home to the Lazy M shoe store; the upper floors are occupied by the Boston Store furniture department and Sperry & Hutchinson (green stamps).

McQuilkin was well-known in the community of Fort Dodge and was involved in the First Presbyterian Church. He passed away in 1926 at the age of 62. Mrs. McQuilkin died in 1942. The McQuilkins had four children—Mrs. Granger P. (Marjorie) Mitchell of Fort Dodge; Mrs. Eleanor Terrill, who has since passed away; and two daughters who died in infancy.

The old E. I. Leighton house at 1120 3rd Ave. N. was built by the founder of the Leighton Supply Company in Fort Dodge. It's currently owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Struve.

The Struves bought the house in 1969 and have fully updated the interior, as well as made several changes to the exterior, like adding classic posts, trim, and railing to the large front porch.

Leighton built the house in 1901 based on designs by architect J. H. Albright. The Leighton family owned the house until 1946 when it was sold to Mrs. Marie Friday, who then sold it to the Struves.

Originally, the house had a reception room, parlor, dining room, kitchen, and pantry on the first floor; five bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and three bedrooms and a storage room on the third floor. The current layout now includes a reception room, living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, and utility room on the first floor; four bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and an apartment on the third floor with a living room, three bedrooms, and a bathroom.

The whole house now features a charming vintage theme with furnishings that fit this style perfectly. All the woodwork has a natural finish, thanks to the Struves’ efforts. Red carpeting covers the floors in the living room, hallway, and the open staircase leading to the second floor. The reception room has a handmade wool-braided rug. Antique furniture is used in the downstairs rooms and the bedrooms on the second floor. The exterior of the house has been painted red, with all the trim in white.

E. I. Leighton was born in Vermont in 1867 and moved to Fort Dodge in 1885, where he learned the tin and hardware trade. From 1889 to 1893, he was a partner in the retail hardware business Arthur & Leighton, and then spent seven years at Leighton Brothers retail plumbing shop. In 1900, Leighton entered the wholesale plumbing and heating industry and, in 1909, he established the Leighton Supply Company. He served as secretary-treasurer and general manager of the company for many years.

The current five-story Leighton building located at First Avenue South and Thirteenth Street was built in 1911 and has been the company's headquarters ever since. The firm operates in northwest and north central Iowa and is a wholesale distributor of plumbing, heating, and industrial supplies.

Leighton was well-known in state plumbing association circles and involved in local civic organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, YMCA, Boy Scouts, and the First Methodist Church. He and Mrs. Leighton had a daughter, Gertrude, and a son, Lucius.

For 33 years, this house was the home of Louis Charon, a well-known merchant in Fort Dodge, and his family. Built in 1905 at 1332 2nd Ave. N., it was lived in by the Charons until 1938.

Charon led the Boston Store here from its opening in 1898 until he passed away in 1940 at the age of 69. He bought the lot at the northwest corner of Second Avenue North and Fourteenth Street early in 1905 and constructed the home that same year.

The house has a living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, and a big hallway on the first floor; three bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and a bedroom and storage room in the attic. A large open porch originally ran across the front of the house.

The Charons sold the house in 1938 to E. G. Sear. Currently, it is owned by Dr. John Sear of Alden. Over the years, the house has been renovated. Tan shingles and green shutters were added to the outside, and the front porch was shortened.

Charon was born in Germany and learned the retail business there. He came to the United States in 1892, lived in Savannah, GA, for two years, and then moved to Sioux City, where he worked at Davidson Bros. store. In 1894, he moved to Fort Dodge and opened Davidson’s store. He stayed with the company until 1898 when he bought out the store and started the Boston Store with Adolph Tuerke as his partner. The store then relocated to Central Avenue between Seventh and Eighth Streets.

As business grew, the need for bigger space resulted in the construction of the current six-story Boston Store Building at 809 Central Avenue in 1914. A devastating fire in 1922 destroyed the store's interior, but it was quickly rebuilt and expanded.

Charon married Clara M. Tuerke in 1902, and they had three children: two sons and a daughter. Maurice Charon was involved with the store for many years and served as president and general manager. Their other son, Louis, was the corporation's secretary. Both worked at the store until it was sold in 1974. Their daughter, Clara Louise, who is a twin of Louis, is married to Herbert Horn and lives in Webster City.

In addition to his impressive work in retail, Charon was involved in community affairs—he chaired the Associated Retailers, served as a director of the Credit Bureau, and was a member of the Iowa Association of Retailers. He was also on the Fort Dodge school board and was part of the Chamber of Commerce.

Jacob Brown Sr. started a grocery store in Fort Dodge in 1870 that lasted an impressive 95 years, and in 1896, he built this house near the business district—at 510 3rd Ave. S.

The Brown Grocery started its business in a store at 15 S. 6th St. and stayed there until 1965, when it wrapped up almost a century of serving customers in the city and nearby areas. Throughout this period, it was consistently run by members of the Brown family.

The Third Avenue South house is now owned and lived in by Miss Rose Brown, one of only two family members still alive.

Brown arrived in Fort Dodge in 1864 from Germany and soon after, he joined Company F of the 11th Iowa Infantry, serving until the end of the Civil War. After the war, he returned to Fort Dodge and purchased the property on South Sixth Street, where he initially operated a blacksmith shop. Eventually, he stopped this work and opened a grocery store in 1870. The two-story brick building that housed the store is now owned by Mrs. Doris Brown, the widow of John Brown.

In 1864, Brown married Wilhelmina Schultze, and they had six children: Jacob Brown Jr., Louise Brown, Kate Etzel, Nettie Brown, Frank Brown, and Minnie B. Leiss. Two years after Mrs. Brown passed away in 1885, Brown married Henricha Becker, and they had five children: Rose, Anna, Amelia, John, and Christine, who is now Mrs. Harris of Pittsburgh, Pa. She and Rose are the only surviving members of the Jacob Brown family.

The two-story brick house at 510 3rd Ave. S. features a living room, dining room, bedroom, bathroom, and a spacious kitchen on the first floor; four bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. In the basement, there's a large brick kettle built into the chimney that was used for heating water for laundry and soap-making. There's also a cyclone cave in the basement.

Brown died in 1915 at the age of 71. His family members remember that when he arrived in Fort Dodge, he initially lived with the Christopher Arnold family in a log cabin near the Wahkonsa School (now the school administration office building). This cabin is now at the Fort Museum here.

This large and appealing house on the north side was the home of Seth Thomas for 50 years, who was the principal of Fort Dodge High School and later a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge. Located at 1200 10th Ave. N., it was the Thomas family's residence from when it was built in 1912 until it was sold in 1962 to Dr. Roger E. Drown.

Currently, the house is owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Hancock, who bought it in the fall of 1974 from Mr. and Mrs. Don F. Carney. Carney, the owner of Don Carney Used Auto Parts, and his wife purchased the Thomas home in 1965 and lived there until moving to their new home at 1227 11th Ave. N.

The two-story house is made of wood and stucco, with a full basement and porches on both the east and west sides. The first floor has a living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom, as well as a front hall and a curved open staircase leading to the second floor. The second floor features four bedrooms, a bathroom, and an enclosed porch. The downstairs bedroom and full bathroom were added some years after the house was built, and this addition included a garage underneath.

The west porch has been turned into a family room, and the east porch is used for social activities. The 10 upstairs windows in the main part of the house have stained glass inserts, and there are also stained glass inserts in the living and dining room windows.

Judge Thomas, originally from Ohio, was educated in the East and worked as a teacher and principal before moving to Iowa in 1900. In 1902, he became the principal of the Washington High School in Iowa and held that position for three years. He arrived in Fort Dodge in 1905 and served as the principal of the local high school until 1909. During the summer months, he studied law at the University of Michigan and earned his law degree from Iowa University in 1910.

Thomas started his law practice here with Healy & Healy and was a law partner of M. F. Healy from 1910 to 1928. He served as the assistant U.S. district attorney for northern Iowa from 1914 until 1921.

Later, he became a law partner of Alan Loth and in 1933 was appointed as a solicitor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He served there until 1935 when he was appointed as a judge of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, with an office in Fort Dodge. Thomas was a judge on this court for 19 years, retiring in 1954. He continued to live in Fort Dodge and passed away in 1962 at the age of 88.

Judge Thomas was the father of two children—Reynolds B. Thomas, an attorney in Fort Dodge; and Mrs. Franz (Eleanor) Van Alstine of Pocahontas. He was well-known in legal circles and served as president of the Iowa State Bar Association from 1931 to 1932. He was a member of the Webster County, Iowa, and American Bar Associations and was president of the Fort Dodge Chamber of Commerce for two years. In 1947, he received special recognition as one of the 50 notable living alumni during the 100th anniversary of the University of Iowa.

Dr. C. J. Saunders, a well-known doctor in Fort Dodge, who arrived in the city in 1893, built this large home at 1108 4th Ave. N. in 1907. For the next 23 years, it was the residence of the Saunders family until it was sold in 1930 to Dr. C. J. Jensen, a local chiropractor, and his wife, Agnes.

Dr. Jensen, who passed away in 1970, had his office in the house for many years. His widow now owns the property and lives in one of the apartments in the house.

When the Saunders house was built in 1907, it originally had a living room, library, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor; four bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor; and two finished rooms on the third floor. The house has been expanded and remodeled over the years and now includes six apartments.

Dr. Saunders was born in Iowa City in 1862 and graduated as the valedictorian of his high school class. He studied medicine at the University of Iowa, graduated from medical school in 1885, and started his practice in Iowa City. In 1886, Dr. Saunders opened an office in Audubon and practiced there for a year before moving to Clare, where he became a well-known doctor for six years. In Clare, he also ran a drugstore and helped set up a bank.

In 1893, Dr. Saunders arrived in Fort Dodge and set up his first office in the newly built Oleson Building. After the First National Bank Building (now the Beh Building) was completed in 1908, he relocated his office there. He was a radiologist and owned one of the first X-ray machines in the city.

Later, Dr. Saunders had offices in the Carver Building and was connected with several doctors. He continued to practice here until he passed away in 1928 at the age of 66.

Active in medical circles, he once served as president of the Iowa Medical Society. He had an interest in several Fort Dodge businesses, including the Fort Dodge Telephone Company, First National Bank, Oleson Land Company, and the Street Railway System.

Dr. Saunders got married in 1907 to Lucy Merrill from Bangor, Maine, and they had a son and two daughters. Their children are: Merrill Saunders, a realtor in Fort Dodge; Miss Katherine Saunders, a librarian in Chicago; and Mrs. Robert (Helen) Thackaberry, a university instructor in Akron, Ohio. Mrs. Saunders passed away in Fort Dodge in 1949 at the age of 72.

This beautiful two-story house is one of the many great homes built along Tenth Avenue North after the Crawford-Armstrong Addition to the city was laid out.

Built in 1916 at 1201 10th Ave. N. by O. M. Thatcher, it was the Thatcher family home until it was sold in 1965 to Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Hancock. The Hancocks lived there until the fall of 1974 when they sold the house to Dr. John E. Duro, a dentist from Fort Dodge. The Hancocks then moved across the street to the place at 1200 10th Ave. N., which they bought from the Don Carneys. The Carneys, in turn, moved to their new home at 1227 11th Ave. N.

The frame and stucco house has a red tile roof like several homes built in the area. The layout of the house includes a living room, library, dining room, kitchen, and half bath on the first floor; four bedrooms and a bath on the second floor. It now has a steam heating system powered by gas. After they bought the home, the Hancocks remodeled and updated the kitchen.

Thatcher was from the town of Grimes, and both he and his wife graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana. After finishing his education, Thatcher entered the banking industry at Luther and stayed there until 1914 when he sold his stake and moved to Fort Dodge.

A few years after arriving in the city, Thatcher became one of the organizers and officers of the Webster County National Bank and its affiliate, the Webster County Trust & Savings Bank. They were situated in a large double room in the Wahkonsa Hotel Building at 919-921 Central Avenue.

Later, Thatcher worked in the insurance business here for many years, part of that time under the name Thatcher & Weiss after he bought the firm from Henry Weiss.

Married in 1907, Thatcher and his wife lived in Luther until 1914. They had two sons and a daughter—Dr. W. C. Thatcher, a retired physician and surgeon from Fort Dodge, now living at Woman Lake near Hackensack, Minn.; Dr. Don Thatcher, who tragically lost his life in a military flight over the English Channel during World War II; and Mrs. Wayne (Mildred) Warren of Humboldt. Their grandson is William Jeffrey Thatcher, who was elected Webster County attorney last fall and started serving in this role on Jan. 1.

The elder Thatcher passed away in 1968 at 83. Mrs. Thatcher died in 1967 at 81.

Frank Corey, a local from Webster County, built this big brick house at 1238 6th Ave. N. in 1914, and it was the Corey family's home until 1922.

The house has changed hands several times since then and is now owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Dennis F. Mallinger and their family. Mallinger is the president of Mallinger Truck Lines.

Corey sold the house to Fred E. Gamble in 1922, and it was later owned by George Schnurr, a Fort Dodge industrialist and banker; Mr. and Mrs. Gus Glaser from the meat processing company; and their son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. John G. Graham. The Mallingers bought the house in 1971.

The tan brick house has a red tile roof and faces south on Sixth Avenue North. The first floor includes a living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, half bath, and a large hallway. The second floor has four bedrooms, a kids' room, and two full bathrooms; the third floor features a large recreation room.

Corey was born in the Holiday Creek area southeast of Fort Dodge. As a young man, he moved to Lehigh, where he lived until 1903 when the family moved to Fort Dodge. Corey was interested in the brick and tile industry and was the main owner and president of the Corey Pressed Brick Company for many years, which had its plant and office in Lehigh. The company produced the well-known Lehigh red, buff, and ornamental pressed building bricks, as well as sidewalk bricks.

The company launched its products in 1894, and they were commonly used in homes and sidewalks in Fort Dodge and the surrounding area. Besides running his brick plant, Corey was involved with several banks and acted as their president. Three brothers—Silas, George, and M. N. Corey—were partners with Frank Corey in the brick and tile plant, and they also owned the “Morning Star Mill” in Lehigh.

The Coreys lived in a large wooden house on Sixth Avenue North before their brick house was built. The wooden house was then relocated to a lot directly to the west and is now owned and occupied by Mrs. Esther K. Thorsen, 1230 6th Ave. N.

Corey and his wife, the former Caroline Tyson, had three daughters and a son. Their daughters were Mrs. Louis (Eva) Neudeck, Mrs. Paul (Roxie) Tinkham, and Miss Lucile Corey, who was a well-known violinist and music teacher for many years. Their son, Frank Tyson Corey, was tragically killed by lightning in 1923 at the Neudeck farm northwest of the city.

Johnson Place—a one-block street running from Twelfth to Thirteenth Streets—was designed and developed by E. H. Johnson, a Fort Dodge lawyer, who also constructed this large brick house.

The house at 5 Johnson Place was home to the Johnson family from when it was built in 1920 until Mrs. Johnson passed away in 1961. Since then, it has been the residence of Mrs. Dora Holman Tellier, Mrs. Johnson's long-time companion and a well-known former math teacher at Fort Dodge High School. The house is now owned by their son, Wallace Johnson, who lives in Berkeley, California.

Of brick construction with a red tile roof, the home has two stories, a full basement, and an attic. The first floor includes an entrance hall, a large living room, a sunroom, a dining room, a kitchen, a children's room, and a half bath; the second floor has five bedrooms and a full bathroom.

Johnson was born in Raritan, Illinois, in 1877 and died in Fort Dodge in 1940 at the age of 63. He moved with his parents to a farm in the Coalville area in 1891 and lived there until the family relocated to Fort Dodge in 1901. He was educated in local schools and then attended Drake University, where he completed his law studies. After being admitted to the bar, he returned to Fort Dodge and started a law practice that lasted until 1940.

After purchasing land between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets and Second and Fourth Avenues, North Johnson laid out the area in 1910, had a street built through it, and named it Johnson Place at the suggestion of a City Council member.

Johnson sold lots along the street and built his first home there at No. 8 Johnson Place. Later, he constructed the house at No. 5 Johnson Place in 1920, where the Johnson family raised their son and two daughters. They included Wallace from Berkeley, Calif.; Eleanor, who went by her stage name Eleanor Prentiss during her theater career and is currently in public relations in New York City; and Olive, who has since passed away, and was married to Carlton Coveny from Los Angeles, Calif.

Wallace is a well-known industrialist and engineer, as well as the president and main owner of UP-RIGHT, Inc., based in Berkeley. His company is a leader in making portable aluminum scaffolds, radio towers, and machines for harvesting wine grapes. He served as the mayor of Berkeley for two terms and has written two books—“Responsible Individualism” and “The Uncommon Man in American Business.”

E. H. Johnson was well-known in the church, Masonic Orders, and Republican circles here. He served on the school board for several years.

This big framed stucco house is now home to Dr. and Mrs. Paul L. Stitt, but for many years it was known as the Chumlea house.

Located at 605 N. 13th St., it was built in 1914 by Miles P. Chumlea, who moved from Sioux City to become the vice president and general manager of the Lehigh Sewer Pipe & Tile 61 Company.

The Fred Hagans bought the house in 1936 and lived there with their family until 1951 when they sold it to Dr. and Mrs. Stitt. The Stitts have lived there ever since.

The house has a spacious living room, dining room, kitchen, breakfast nook (previously the pantry), sun porch, and a powder room on the first floor; four bedrooms, a sleeping porch, and two bathrooms on the second floor; and a bedroom, bathroom, and storage area on the third floor.

Dr. and Mrs. Stitt have four kids—two sons and two daughters. They are: Dr. Michael W. Stitt, who works with his dad in the medical practice here; Marc P. Stitt of Fort Dodge; Mrs. Dan (Beth) Culver, a junior high teacher in Moline, Illinois; her husband teaches at Augustana College; and Mrs. Mark (Jane) Anderson of Des Moines, a teacher at the special education school in Van Meter; her husband is studying at the College of Osteopathic Medicine in Des Moines.

When E. J. Breen sold the Lehigh Sewer Pipe & Tile Company, which he founded, to George Avery from Sioux City, Chumlea arrived in Fort Dodge in 1914 to take over the management of the company.

For many years, the company was based in the First National Bank Building, then later relocated to First Avenue South and Eleventh Street in the building that has since been taken down, which was previously home to the Laufersweiler Funeral Home and the Union Trust & Savings Bank. The clay plant was sold in 1964 to the W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company, and the offices were moved to Lehigh.

Chumlea served as an official of the company until he passed away in 1917. Roy Dallam, who had been with the company for many years, was then appointed general manager and remained in that role until he retired in 1955.

The charming Hawley house at 604 N. 13th St. is likely the only home in Fort Dodge that has the year it was built—1912—displayed in big numbers on one of its outside walls. A. W. Hawley constructed the house; he was involved in various types of farming but focused on Royal Belgian draft horses. 62

The home has been sold only twice since it was built in 1912. In 1942, it was bought by Forrest Hagerman, an executive at the Tobin Packing Company. The Hagermans lived there until 1953 when they sold it to D. E. McTigue and his wife, Elizabeth (Betty). Mrs. McTigue has continued to live in the home since her husband passed away in 1965. They have three sons—Michael, Brian, and Dennis.

A. W. Hawley was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1875. After spending a few years in banking, he traveled to Iowa and settled in the Pioneer area. He brought a large supply of nursery plants and planted many homesites around Pioneer. In the late 1890s, Hawley established his home in Jackson Township of Webster County. He married Martha Waller in 1902.

Hawley took multiple trips to Belgium to buy breeding stock for his Belgian draft horse business. His farm was called “Whip Tree” because of a cottonwood tree that happened to grow there. Mrs. Harold B. Freeman, formerly Susan Hawley Atwell and now residing in Whittier, Calif., remembers that her father had groves, orchards, and various plantings on the farm.

The Hawleys built their home in Fort Dodge and moved here so their kids could go to the city schools. The house has been remodeled inside since it was built. The layout on the first floor now includes a reception hall, living room, dining room, kitchen, den, powder room, and sun porch. Upstairs, there are four bedrooms, a full bath, large walk-in closets, and a screened-in porch.

Hawley kept farming actively for six years after moving to Fort Dodge. Later, he managed several farms he owned, judged horses at the Iowa State Fair, and showcased his prize horses at different fairs and shows. For a while, he partnered with Roy Ives in the horse business, who farmed near Duncombe.

The Hawleys had three children—Mrs. Harold B. (Susan) Freeman from Whittier, California; Mrs. Louis (Betty) Kelso from San Mateo, California; and Richard (Dick) Hawley, a retired Pan-American pilot currently living in Seattle, Washington. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hawley have passed away. Mr. Hawley died in 1932 at the age of 57; Mrs. Hawley died in 1942.

F. H. Helsell, a well-known lawyer, judge, and banker from Iowa, lived in this big brick house at 1003 6th Ave. N. for many years. Judge Helsell and his family bought the house in 1919 and kept it until 1943.

The house is located at the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue North and Tenth Street. Built in 1906 from brown brick, it has two stories, an attic, and a basement. A large porch stretches along the north and west sides.

The home has a living room with a fireplace, a foyer, a dining room, and a kitchen on the first floor; five bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The attic is fully paneled and carpeted, making it perfect for a recreation room.

Present owners and occupants are Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Pett, who bought the house in 1970 from James and Mildred Kempley. Pett works at Georgia Pacific Corporation. Other previous owners included Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Hamilton, Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Hughes, and Mr. and Mrs. Fred S. Thornley.

Judge Helsell was born in Ohio in 1857 and moved to Iowa with his parents in 1864. After finishing his education and legal training, he started practicing law in Sioux Rapids in 1882. Alongside his private practice, he served as the local attorney for five railroads—Chicago and North Western, Rock Island, Milwaukee, Missouri & St. Louis, and Illinois Central.

In 1898, Helsell was elected as a district court judge. He stepped down after two and a half years and got involved in banking, helping to set up several banks in northwest Iowa. He served as an officer and director of these banks.

Helsell got married in 1880, and he and Mrs. Helsell had five kids—one son and four daughters. Their names were Charles A. Helsell, who was his law partner for many years; Glenora, who married Don G. LaGrange; Corrine, who married John Q. Adams; Laura, who married Roy L. Liddel; and Miss Virginia Helsell.

Judge Helsell and his son Charles practiced law together until the father passed away in 1927. After his death, Charles was appointed as the district attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad and was later promoted to solicitor general of the railroad, with offices in Chicago. B. B. Burnquist then took over from Charles Helsell as the district attorney here.

Judge Helsell was involved in the Masonic orders, Knights of Pythias, and the Elks. As a prominent Republican, he served as a delegate to the national conventions of 1888 and 1896.

The “Mueller home” at 615 3rd Ave. S. is located on a historic site dating back to the early days of Fort Dodge. This is where the congregation of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church built its first place of worship—a small structure made of gypsum rock, commonly referred to for many years as “the old stone church.”

The congregation was established in 1863, and the next year, they built the stone church on property purchased from Fort Dodge’s founder, Major William Williams, on Third Avenue South. Although the current St. Paul’s building was constructed in 1885-1886, the congregation kept ownership of the stone church until 1895, when it was sold to J. M. Mulroney.

The current house at 615 3rd Ave. S. was built in 1896 on the church site. When the old stone church was demolished, some of the gypsum rock was used in the house's foundation. Records indicate that J. R. Mulroney bought the property in 1911 and lived there until 1913, when the house was sold to William F. Mueller, a hardware dealer from Fort Dodge.

The home has been owned and occupied by the Mueller family since 1913 and is currently owned by a daughter, Miss Ruth Mueller. The house has been renovated in recent years and now contains four apartments—two on the first floor and two on the second floor. Miss Mueller lives in one of the downstairs apartments.

William F. Mueller was born in Fort Dodge in 1877 and kicked off his hardware career in a store owned by Harry Vincent. Later, Vincent teamed up with Mueller, Franz, and Bruno Thiede to form a partnership in the hardware business, and they launched the Thiede-Mueller Hardware Company in 1911 at 516 Central Avenue. After a few years, the store relocated to the Thiede Building at 815 Central Avenue, and eventually moved back to the original location at 516 Central. The Ferguson True Value Hardware store is now situated in the building where the Thiede-Mueller company started more than 60 years ago.

In 1951, Mueller retired and sold his stake in the company. He passed away in 1955 at the age of 77. He was well-known in hardware industry circles and served as the president of the Iowa Retail Hardware Association. Additionally, he was a director of the Iowa Hardware Mutual Insurance Association for over 30 years. Throughout his career, Mueller was a member of the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs, as well as the Chamber of Commerce and the United Commercial Travelers.

He and Mrs. Mueller (formerly Emma Thiede) had seven children: Ruth, Mrs. Ray (Helen) Adamson, Mrs. Robert (Wilma) Ackerson, William J. Mueller, Mrs. Frank (Dorothy) Barry; and Mrs. Carl (Gertrude) Tunwall and Frank Mueller, both of whom have passed away.

The house at 1307 3rd Ave. N. is likely the only one in Fort Dodge with concrete walls—a bit of a novelty when it was built in 1911. The two-story home was built by E. W. Collins, a coal dealer who had been around here for many years.

Collins came from a Webster County family known for pioneering in the coal mining and gypsum industry in this area, and they were quite innovative. He had an idea for a house that would be built differently than the typical houses, and he put this idea into practical use in 1910 after purchasing the Third Avenue North lot in 1909.

The house is built with double-wall concrete construction, which provides outstanding structural strength and an insulating air space between the two walls. Wooden forms were created for the walls, and concrete was poured into them. The finish on the exterior concrete walls is distinctive. Instead of making the walls flat, Collins designed forms that allow the poured concrete to mimic wood siding. This gives the house the look of a typical wood siding frame home. The unique features drew significant attention from people involved in home construction.

The Collins family moved into the house after it was finished and lived there until 1917, when they moved to 1245 5th Ave. N., which has been their home ever since. The concrete home, which now has two apartments, is currently owned by Hubert McMahon at 1129 S. 17th St.

A brother of E. W. Collins named Tom Collins designed and successfully launched the first underground gypsum mine in the area. This happened just before the turn of the century when he and others founded the Cardiff Gypsum Plaster Company.

E. W. Collins married Alice Quealy in 1900 and around that time launched a retail coal business in the city, which he ran until his retirement in 1937. He passed away in 1945 at the age of 77; Mrs. Collins died in 1961 at the age of 88.

The Collins had three kids—two sons and a daughter. They were Edwin, who has passed away; Allan, who lives in Fort Dodge; and Kathleen, who is in Rochester, Minn. Allan and his wife live in the family home at 1245 5th Ave. N. They have 11 kids. Allan retired from the postal service a few years back and now works at the office of Iowa Beef Processors here.

One of Fort Dodge’s first city commissioners under the current form of government owned and lived in this home at 1205 5th Ave. S. for several years after buying it in 1910.

He was C. H. (Cad) Smith, the public safety commissioner from 1911 until his death in 1919. He was elected to the city council when the commission form of government was adopted. Also elected at that time with Smith were John F. Ford, the mayor, and Frank W. Collins, the streets commissioner.

The big frame house was built in 1891 by Charles B. Hepler, a well-known contractor who had been around for many years. He also partnered with David Brown at the Fort Dodge Planing Mill. The lot at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue South and Twelfth Street was part of a piece of land bought in 1861 by John F. Duncombe, a pioneer attorney and businessman.

Smith bought the house in 1910 from E. J. Breen, and it stayed in the Smith family until 1948 when Mr. and Mrs. Walter B. Cooper purchased it. At that time, Cooper, a plumber, turned the house into a duplex, and the apartments have been rented out since then.

The house originally had five rooms on the first floor—living room, library, dining room, sunroom, kitchen, and pantry; the second floor had four bedrooms, a sleeping porch, and a bathroom. The attic on the third floor also had two finished rooms. The house featured large front and back porches.

Smith was born in Pennsylvania in 1867 and moved west as a young man to Grinnell, where he attended and graduated from Grinnell College. After that, he relocated to Fort Dodge and worked for The Messenger until he entered public service.

Smith married Grace Hepler in Fort Dodge, who was the daughter of contractor Charles B. Hepler. They had three daughters: Mrs. Margaret Lowrey of Seattle, WA; Elizabeth, who has passed away; and Mrs. Thomas (Gretchen) Porter of Fort Dodge.

Mr. Smith passed away in 1919 at the age of 52; Mrs. Smith died here in 1948.

For many years, this home at 1201 6th Ave. S. belonged to Paul Horn, a well-known cabinetmaker, inventor, and industrialist. Built in 1908, it is located on a lot that was commonly referred to as the highest point in the city at that time.

Mr. and Mrs. Horn and their family lived in the house as it was originally built until 1924 when it was completely renovated. After the renovation, the house featured a large kitchen with a breakfast nook, a dining room that could seat 18 people, and a built-in buffet expertly crafted by Horn that covered the entire south wall of the room. Also on the first floor were a large living room with a solarium, a family room, and a powder room.

The upper floor of the house can be accessed by a staircase that splits at a landing. One part of the staircase goes to an area with two bedrooms and a bathroom; the other leads to three bedrooms and a bathroom. The third floor has two rooms. The Horns kept the house until 1964 when Mrs. Horn moved to Friendship Haven.

Horn had a lot of hobbies besides his impressive woodworking skills. These included stone carving and growing unique flowers. The basement of the house was fully finished and featured his hobby shop equipped with both woodworking and metalworking tools. On the south side of the house, there was a small greenhouse where Horn cultivated many flowers.

A native of Germany, Horn learned cabinetmaking there and arrived in Fort Dodge in 1902, where he worked for a while at the Fort Dodge Planing Mill. In 1909, he started his own business called the Paul Horn Cabinet Works, where he made store fixtures and repaired fine furniture. It later became the Horn Manufacturing Company.

In 1922, he created Horn Folding Partitions for schools and public buildings all over the United States. A few years later—in 1938—Horn invented the Horn Folding Bleachers, which were manufactured here and set up in school gymnasiums across the country. During World War II, the Horn company produced and installed large airplane hangar doors for military facilities throughout the US.

In 1943, Horn stepped down from the company, and his four sons took over management. They expanded the business and added farm equipment to their product line. The company built a large manufacturing facility at the southwest edge of the city, which was later sold to Brunswick Corporation and then to Avco-New Idea. It is now owned by Kraus Manufacturing Company, a farm machinery business.

Mr. and Mrs. Horn were the parents of six children: Frederic G., Herbert, Robert, Walter (now deceased), Mrs. Herbert Blaess, and Mrs. John Barnes. Besides his work in manufacturing, Horn was involved in community and church activities here and served on the board of Lutheran Hospital (now Trinity Regional West) for 26 years. He passed away in 1963 at the age of 86; Mrs. Horn died in 1973 at the age of 96.

A Norwegian young man, who came to the United States in 1889 and later became a manager and partner at the Oleson Drug Company here, built this house and lived there until his unexpected death in 1941. His name was Thorvald S. Larsen, and he was 18 when he arrived in this country.

After a brief time in Minneapolis, he took a job as an apprentice pharmacist with O. M. Oleson at his store here. That marked the beginning of Larsen’s long and successful partnership with Oleson, a pioneering pharmacist in Fort Dodge and a well-known philanthropist.

The Larsen home, a large white wooden building at 1302 4th Ave. N., was built in 1903. It is currently owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Leo Kelleher and their family, who bought it in 1953 from C. M. Bodensteiner. The Bodensteiners purchased the house in 1944.

The inside of the home is pretty much the same as when it was built. Downstairs, there’s a big living room, a library, a dining room, a kitchen with a pantry, a half bath, and a hallway leading to the open staircase to the second floor. Upstairs, there are five bedrooms and a bathroom. A large open porch runs along the south and west sides of the house.

Larsen studied pharmacy while working as an apprentice and became a licensed pharmacist. In 1900, he took over the management of the Oleson Drug Company store located at Central Avenue and Eighth Street. The store was on the first floor and in the basement of the three-story Oleson Building, which was built in 1894 and was a downtown landmark until it was demolished in 1971 to make room for the City Green parking lot.

Larsen was married to May Larson from Fort Dodge, the daughter of Olaf Larson, a contractor and bridge builder from back in the day. They had six children: Helen, who has passed away; Rolf; Dr. Harold Larsen, who is also deceased; Dr. Frank S. Larsen; Robert; and Carl Larsen.

Larsen was a well-known businessman in Fort Dodge. He was 70 years old when he was killed in a car accident at Second Avenue North and Thirty-second Street in 1941. Mrs. Larsen passed away in 1968 at age 89 at Friendship Haven, where she had lived for several years.

A well-known ENT doctor in Fort Dodge—Dr. W. F. Carver—built this beautiful home at 905 Northwood Ave. in 1920. Before that, he had his office and lived in a large house at the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Tenth Street, which was built in the early 1890s by Col. Leander Blanden. This historic building was demolished in 1915 to make room for the current Carver Building.

The two-story Snell Place house was made of light-colored brick, but over the years, the outside was painted white. The first floor features a hallway, a spacious living room with a marble fireplace, a sunroom also with a fireplace, a dining room with a built-in china cabinet, a large kitchen, and a breakfast room that has been updated in recent years, along with a half bath. The second floor contains four bedrooms and a bathroom.

The big plastered attic room has been painted and made more comfortable. The attic has 12 large storage drawers; each one is 36 inches wide, 12 inches deep, and pulls out 50 inches.

Dr. Carver bought the Snell Place lot in late 1919 after he returned from overseas service during World War I and built the house in 1920. In 1938, it was sold to L. G. Shannon. After Mr. Shannon passed away, the house was sold in 1957 to Gene Gutknecht. He, his wife, and their family currently live in the home. The house now features all-natural birch woodwork after an extensive refinishing project done by Gutknecht.

Dr. Carver was born in Madison County in 1869 and graduated in 1894 from the Louisville Medical College, part of the University of Kentucky. He began his general medical practice in Murray, Iowa. After getting married, the couple moved to Fort Dodge in 1900. They built a home at 1420 4th Ave. N. in 1904 and lived there for a few years before buying the Blanden House at the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Tenth Street.

The family lived in the historic house until it was decided to tear it down and build a downtown business and office building. The first two floors of the Carver Building were constructed in 1915, and later six more floors were added. The Blanden house had a greenhouse on the south side where plants and flowers thrived beautifully year-round. The ceilings in the house were 13 feet high, and all the woodwork was solid walnut. The doors were heavy—two to three inches thick.

Dr. and Mrs. Carver had three kids—two sons who continued in the medical field and a daughter. They were Dr. W. F. Carver Jr., now retired and living in Arizona; Dr. James Carver, who has since passed away; and Mrs. Susan Carver Anderson, who lives in Seattle, Wash.

A. S. R. Reynolds, an early Fort Dodge merchant who built the three-story Reynolds Block Building at Central Avenue and Seventh Street, also constructed this house at 1202 4th Ave. N. Reynolds and his wife lived in the home for many years after it was finished in 1910.

The house, now a two-family duplex, is currently owned by Rillmon E. Hoskin, 1037 N. 24th Place, and the apartments are rented out. Both are pretty similar—living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. Previous owners of the house were Allen R. Loomis, who bought it in 1937, and Mrs. Matina Constantine, who purchased it in 1952.

Reynolds built another house here in the 1890s at the northwest corner of First Avenue North and Ninth Street. The Reynolds family lived in this home until 1910, when it was sold to the YWCA, which used it until 1913, when it was sold and moved to Fourth Avenue North and Ninth Street. The YWCA then constructed its current building at that location. (See story elsewhere in this book on the YWCA house).

Known as “one of the state’s capitalists,” Reynolds was born in Missouri in 1844 and moved with his parents to Iowa in 1846. He grew up and was educated in Delaware County and, at age 18, joined Company G of the 6th Iowa Cavalry in 1862, serving until 1865.

In 1872, Reynolds moved to Fort Dodge and bought a grocery store at 523 Central Avenue, which he ran for a year. He then built a new building at 521 Central Avenue, relocated the grocery there, and continued operating until 1882. Next, Reynolds constructed a three-story building at the northeast corner of Central and Seventh. He used the west half of the ground floor for his grocery store—where the Commercial National Bank was later located. He operated this store until 1894 when he sold the business to focus on managing his property interests.

Space on the east side of the first floor of the building was rented out, and offices filled the second floor. The third floor was leased to the Masonic Orders and later to labor unions. In later years, the third floor was taken down. The building now has apartments on the second floor, and the Wicker Jewelry and Friesth Appliance Center on the first floor. Jerry Neeson now owns the building.

Reynolds was involved in many local activities, was part of the Masonic Orders, and spent 14 years on the Fort Dodge school board. He was the uncle of Charles H. Reynolds, who served as the Webster County surveyor and later as the city engineer of Fort Dodge for 31 years.

This large brick house has been located at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue South and Thirteenth Street since 1891 and was known as the Goldsworthy home for many years because of an early owner and builder.

In later years, it was owned by a well-known artist, china painter, and art instructor—Miss Edna Richardson—who taught painting to many women in Fort Dodge and the surrounding area. The house, located at 1302 5th Ave. S., is now owned by Mrs. Katherine Gilligan.

A big hall at the front entrance leads to the oak staircase that goes upstairs. The first floor has spacious living rooms, a dining room, a den, a kitchen, and a half bath. One of the living rooms has a fireplace, and there's another fireplace in one of the upstairs bedrooms. There are three bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The ceilings upstairs are 9 feet high, while those downstairs are 10 feet high.

Oak is used throughout the house in the floors and woodwork that shine beautifully despite their age. Traditional interior window shutters can be found in the two living rooms and dining room.

John Goldsworthy, a carpenter and cabinetmaker, bought the corner lot and built the house in 1891. He also constructed a small shop at the back of the lot where he continued his work for many years. In 1919, Goldsworthy sold the property to Clarence and Allie Hoyt Wakeman, who then sold the brick house to Miss Edna Richardson in 1920.

Miss Richardson was born in 1874 in Bath, N.Y., the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Richardson. She moved to Fort Dodge with her parents at a young age and, after finishing her education, started working in art, focusing on oil painting and china painting.

Her artistic talent became well-known, and she started offering art classes at her home while also teaching in other towns. She was especially recognized for her beautiful china painting, and many people in Fort Dodge and the surrounding areas now own dishes painted by her or some of her students. The room in the house that is now a den used to be the classroom where students practiced their china painting.

Miss Richardson lived in the big brick house until she passed away in 1945. The property was then left to Mrs. Gilligan (Katherine), who had been her nurse before she died. Mrs. Gilligan and her husband, Thomas, have been living in the home since 1947.

A big house with massive columns that brings to mind fancy southern plantation homes has stood at the northeast corner of Third Avenue South and Seventh Street since just after the start of the century.

It is the house at 225 S. 7th St., built in 1901 by Dennis E. Leary, a well-known grocer in Fort Dodge for many years. The ownership of the property has changed several times, and the house is currently owned by Robert Walters, who bought it in 1956.

The house has now been turned into five apartments—two on the first floor, two on the second floor, and one in the attic. Walters lives in one of the downstairs apartments while the others are rented out.

Originally, the house had a large hall, living room, parlor, dining room, kitchen, and pantry on the first floor. The second floor had four bedrooms, a bathroom, a den, and a large hall. All floors were hardwood, and the walls featured beautiful fresco work. Leary bought the property in 1893 at Third Avenue South and Seventh Street, which had a small house on the lot. This stayed until 1901 when it was moved to Second Avenue South and Third Street to make room for the large Leary home.

Leary, originally from Boston, Massachusetts, moved to Waverly, Iowa, with his parents and stayed there until 1893 when he relocated to Fort Dodge. Upon arriving, he bought property at the southwest corner of Central Avenue and Seventh Street and opened a grocery store there. He ran this store until 1903 when a fire destroyed the building.

Leary then bought a building across the street on the north side of Central Avenue and opened another grocery store, which he ran until 1910 when he sold the business to Tom Welch. The building remained under Leary’s name.

Leary got married in 1892 to Ellen Foley, and they had two sons—John A. Leary and Dennis E. Leary, who both live in Fort Dodge. The elder Leary passed away in 1910 at the age of 48. Mrs. Leary died in 1950 at the age of 91.

The Learys had a big barn behind their house where they stored horses, a surrey with a fringed top, and the wagon they used to deliver groceries to customers in the city. After the house was sold, Dr. W. E. Alton became one of its new owners and ran a private hospital and office there. He enjoyed boat building as a hobby and constructed several boats.

The big two-story brick house at 1119 6th Ave. N.—with large columns holding up a canopy that stretches across the front—was built in 1914 by a Fort Dodge real estate agent and insurance broker.

Known for several years as the Merritt home because it was owned by W. N. Merritt, it later became known as the Faville home, the Thompson home, and the Barrett home. Since 1961, it has been owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Anver Habhab and their family.

The house has four rooms on the first floor—living room, den, dining room, and kitchen; the second floor has four bedrooms and a bathroom, and the attic also has one bedroom. The Merritt family lived in the home from when it was built in 1914 until early in 1918 when it was sold to Fredrick F. Faville, a Fort Dodge lawyer who moved to the city from Storm Lake.

Mr. and Mrs. Faville, along with their son Stanton and daughter Marion, lived in the house until 1921 75 when it was sold to Mrs. Martha Thompson, the widow of S. H. Thompson who owned and ran the Fort Dodge Cooperage Works. Faville, a law partner of Robert Healy, was influential in legal circles and was elected to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1920. The Favilles then relocated to Des Moines, where their son Stanton became a well-known attorney in later years.

The cooperage company run by Thompson was situated near Fifth Avenue North and Fifth Street, producing wooden butter tubs, tanks, cisterns, and casks, along with barrels for stucco, apples, and oatmeal. After Thompson passed away, the business was managed by his family members, including the late M. T. Thompson.

The Thompson family kept ownership of the house at 1119 6th Ave. N. for a while after Mrs. Thompson passed away. In 1940, it was sold to S. L. Barrett, who worked for many years as sales manager and later became president of Fort Dodge Laboratories. The Barretts owned the property until it was bought in 1961 by Anver and Betty Habhab.

The front of the house was renovated by the Habhabs in 1968, adding a large canopy with four columns that extends from the ground to the roof. It provides cover for an open patio area. Habhab runs Anver’s Lounge in downtown Fort Dodge and the Rose-A-Rio Restaurant and Lounge in the Crossroads.

A Fort Dodge businessman who ran a culvert manufacturing company and an iron and steel mill here over fifty years ago built this large house at 510 S. 12th St. in 1915.

He was Charles L. Carter, who, along with several other Fort Dodgers, set up and ran the Fort Dodge Culvert Company near Sixth Avenue North and Seventh Street. Besides his home on South Twelfth Street, he also built the three-story structure at 1018-1020 Central Avenue, which has recently been referred to as the Dunsmoor or Dee Building. This building is now owned by Dodger Homes, a partnership of Fort Dodge locals including Leo Bevien, William Gibb, Gene Marchi, and Richard Koberg.

Carter bought the lot for his house in 1914, and the next year he built a home with a stucco exterior. The house initially had a spacious living room that stretched across the front part of the interior, along with a sunroom, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor. On the second floor, there were three bedrooms, two sleeping porches, a sewing room, and a bathroom.

Carter’s Central Avenue building had apartments on the second and third floors called the Carter Apartments. The first floor had a large room that various businesses occupied over the years and another room rented out to a movie theater. The theater went by the names Majestic, Pokadot, and eventually the Dodge. The building's apartments are now called the Dee Apartments.

The Fort Dodge Culvert Company had its original plant at 529 N. 7th St., just a short walk from the Fort Dodge Baseball Park where the city’s Central Association League teams played their games. Carter was the secretary-treasurer of the culvert company.

From culvert manufacturing, the company expanded into the steel and iron industry and operated under the name Fort Dodge Culvert and Iron Mills Company. The office was located at 14 S. 6th St., and the plant and steel mill were at 624 N. 7th St. Carter was the president of the firm; C. E. Kitchen was the vice president; and R. M. Stevens was the secretary-treasurer. In 1923, the company changed its name again to Fort Dodge Culvert and Steel Company, with Carter as president; J. W. Amond as vice president; W. L. Tang as secretary-treasurer; and W. G. Warner as sales manager. The business continued operating until around 1927.

A. R. Williams, a realtor from Fort Dodge, bought the Carter house in 1938, and the Williams family lived there for many years. The house is now owned by Williams' widow, Irene M. Williams, and the apartments are rented out.

One of the first houses built in Snell Place after it was laid out was this spacious and cozy home. Situated at 710 Elizabeth Ave., it was constructed in 1920 by C. W. Gadd, a prominent banker from Fort Dodge.

The two-story red brick house with a red tile roof and white wood trim faces northeast in a lovely setting surrounded by a wide stretch of green lawn, shrubs, and flower beds. At the back of the house is a screened-in patio.

Gadd bought the building lot in 1919 and the next year built the house that his family lived in until 1928. The home was then sold to J. B. Butler, and the Gadds moved into an apartment. Shortly after, the house was bought by Charles F. Isaacson, a Fort Dodge merchant and one of the founders of the Gates Store here. The Isaacson family owned the property until 1970 when it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Dale C. DeFoe, who currently live there with their family. DeFoe is the owner of DeFoe Motors.

The home features large rooms, including a living room that spans the front of the house, a solarium, a dining room, a kitchen, and a half bath on the first floor; and four bedrooms, two full baths, a playroom, and a den on the second floor.

Gadd was from Rolfe and lived there until he was 21. He then moved to Buffalo Center, where he started his banking career at the First National Bank in that community. He lived there for 30 years before moving to Fort Dodge in 1920 to run a real estate business focused mainly on farmland.

In 1929, Gadd became involved with the bank now called The State Bank and was engaged in its management until he passed away in 1949 at the age of 78. He served as the executive vice president of the bank until 1944, when he was elected chairman of the board.

Gadd was involved in community activities, including the Fort Dodge Betterment Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Rotary Club. He married in 1900, and he and Mrs. Gadd had five children—Robert Gadd and Mrs. Lyle (Louise) Sells, both from Fort Dodge; Clem Gadd, who has passed away; Mrs. Kenneth (Eunice) Edwards of Silver Springs, Fla.; and Richard Gadd of Atlanta, Ga. Mrs. Gadd passed away here in 1936.

In addition to his banking interests, Gadd was also involved in the gypsum industry and served for a while as treasurer of the Cardiff Gypsum Company.

This house at 910 5th Ave. N. was built in 1884 by Dr. Casper D. Koch, an early musician in Fort Dodge. Later, it became the home of a well-known educator, Prof. John F. Monk, and a famous social worker and YWCA executive, Miss Lynn S. Anderson.

The two-story frame house is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Gurnett, who bought it in 1959. There are currently four apartments in the house—two on each floor. One of the downstairs apartments is occupied by the Gurnetts.

Windows in the house reflect the style of the time it was built and are long and narrow. Three windows in the front living room stretch from the floor to the ceiling.

Dr. Koch bought the plot of land and built the house in 1884. Proof of the time he spent in the house surfaced a few years ago when sheet music with Dr. Koch’s name was discovered in the attic.

The house was bought in 1901 by S. J. Robertson, a businessman from Fort Dodge, who lived there until 1910 when he sold the property to Mrs. J. F. (Helen) Monk and her sisters, Lynn S. Anderson and Florence A. Anderson. Prof. and Mrs. Monk and the Anderson sisters lived in the home at different times in the following years. Monk was a professor at Tobin College and co-owned the college with C. V. Findlay. The college was located at the northwest corner of First Avenue North and Seventh Street and at one point had between 400 and 500 students across its various departments.

Monk got married in 1892 to Helen M. Anderson, and they had four kids—Florence, Melville, Dorothy, and John. The father was well-known in Fort Dodge; he served as president of the Chautauqua Assembly, was a director of the Commercial Club, and was president of the official board of the First Methodist Church.

Miss Lynn Anderson became the sole owner of the house at 910 5th Ave. N. in 1936 and kept it until 1951. Originally from Clarence, Iowa, she moved to Fort Dodge in 1904 after finishing her education and teaching for a while. She helped establish the YWCA here and was its first physical director and secretary. After leaving the YWCA, she worked for the Webster County Welfare Department and then served as a probation officer for many years. She taught a Sunday School class at the First Presbyterian Church for 20 years and was a member of the Fort Dodge Business & Professional Women’s Club and the Story Tellers Club. She received the Kiwanis Club’s “Golden Ruler” award several years before her death in 1972 at the age of 100.

A Fort Dodge mayor—C. V. Findlay—who was the city’s chief exec for 10 years, owned and lived in this house for many years. The two-story frame house at 1707 8th Ave. S. was built in 1895 by Charles Hayler and sold in 1901 to James Findlay.

The home stayed in the Findlay family's possession until it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Donald Pieper in 1953. In 1973, it was bought by Mr. and Mrs. Gary D. Reel, who currently live there with their two kids. Reel works as a sheet metal worker at Northwest Furnace Company.

The house has been remodeled a bit but still has mostly the same room layout as in previous years. The first floor includes a living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, and a bathroom. The second floor features four bedrooms (one that’s used as a kids’ playroom) and a bathroom.

C. V. Findlay bought the house in 1910 and lived there with his wife and kids for many years. He was born in Illinois in 1866 and moved to Iowa and Clay County with his parents in 1871. Six years later, the Findlays moved to Webster County and settled in Otho Township. He went to local schools and later graduated from Highland Park College in Des Moines. After returning to Fort Dodge, Findlay was elected as the Webster County superintendent of schools and held that position for several years.

Findlay then bought Tobin College alongside J. F. Monk, and the two ran this well-known educational institution for many years. The three-story wooden college building was situated at the northwest corner of First Avenue North and Seventh Street. It was destroyed by fire in 1929.

In 1899, Findlay got married, and the couple had two sons—James Franklin Findlay and Maurice Findlay. Mrs. Findlay was one of the first secretaries of the YWCA.

Findlay was elected to the city council while the city was using the ward system of government and served from 1910 to 1911. Still interested in community issues, Findlay was later elected mayor of Fort Dodge in 1923 under the commission form of government that was set up in 1911. He was reelected for four additional terms, serving a total of 10 years as mayor. His time in office was the longest of any mayor in the city until Albert Habhab was elected mayor in 1959 and served continuously until 1973—a total of 14 years.

Dr. John F. Studebaker, who started his medical practice here in 1908, built this big two-story house at 2018 8th Ave. N. in 1914. Dr. Studebaker and his family lived in the home until he retired in 1942 and moved to California.

The house was then sold to Richard Hess, the U.S. Gypsum plant manager here; then to Mr. and Mrs. Roy V. Murray in 1947. In 1948, the property was sold to Robert M. Kelley, an insurance agent from Fort Dodge, and Mrs. Kelley, who lived there with their family until 1974 when it was purchased by R. Thomas Price, a Fort Dodge attorney, and Mrs. Price. The Prices now live there.

Originally, the house had a living room, a parlor or music room, a dining room, a library used by Dr. Studebaker for his medical books, a large kitchen, and a bathroom on the first floor; four bedrooms, a sleeping porch, and a bathroom on the second floor. The house has been renovated and updated at various times, with the Kelleys adding a family room on the north side 15 years ago and a bedroom and bathroom on the second floor.

The areas around the house were beautifully landscaped with trees, shrubs, flowers, a vegetable garden, a small fruit orchard, a grape arbor, and raspberry bushes. There was also an octagonal gazebo and a tennis court on the property.

Dr. Studebaker was born in Pearl City, Illinois, in 1874 and later moved to Summerfield, Kansas. He graduated from MacPherson College and then attended the University of Illinois College of Medicine, followed by postgraduate studies at Harvard Medical School. He started his first office in the newly built First National Bank building here and practiced general medicine until 1916, when he began to specialize in surgery.

He was a World War I veteran who served in the Army Medical Corps. After being discharged, Dr. Studebaker returned to Fort Dodge and in 1922 teamed up with Dr. E. F. Beeh and Dr. A. A. Schultz to build the Physicians Clinic, a two-story building at First Avenue North and Tenth Street, where they had offices for many years. Four more floors—dedicated to apartments—were added in 1928 and named Biltwell Apartments.

Dr. and Mrs. Studebaker had two kids. Their son, Dr. Leland F. Studebaker, practiced medicine in California. He passed away in 1971 at the age of 63. Their daughter, Miss Rowena Studebaker, lives in Fort Dodge.

One of Fort Dodge's most unique homes is this Spanish-style house at 725 N. 21st St.—built in 1925 by furniture store owner Joe K. Trauerman. The beautiful home is now owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lunn and their family. Lunn is an attorney in Fort Dodge. 81

The house looks like the ones found in the southwestern United States, where Spanish architecture is quite popular. The exterior is made of stucco, painted a nice yellow with black trim. The front features three arches supported by two black columns. Behind a small patio area, large French doors open from the west side of the living room.

A classic Spanish-style wall runs from the southwest corner of the house to the southern property line, creating privacy for the backyard.

An entry hall just inside the front door leads to the spacious living room with a high beamed ceiling and a Spanish-style fireplace. Other rooms include a dining area, kitchen, two large bedrooms, a bathroom, and another bedroom above the garage. Just off this bedroom is a veranda extending over part of the garage. The backyard features a large screened-in porch and patio.

Trauerman moved to Fort Dodge from Sioux Falls, S.D., in 1921, bought the C.H. Pill Furniture Store, and renamed it Home Furniture. He operated the store actively until 1940 when he relocated to Corpus Christi, Texas, but still kept an interest in the business. The Trauerman home changed hands several times after that until the Lunns bought it in 1970.

Harold W. Burch joined Trauerman as an officer of Home Furniture in 1933, coming here from Clinton. In 1950, Trauerman sold his remaining interest in the business to Burch and the late Kitty Munn. Earlier, in 1947, Home purchased the McQuilkin Furniture Store, moved its operations to the McQuilkin building, and stayed there until 1960. The store then relocated to a new building at 611 Central Ave. In 1972, the business was sold to the Kelly Furniture Company. In 1974, Elliott Home Furniture took over the 611 Central Avenue location.

Trauerman and his wife, Lucille, were parents of three children—two daughters and a son. Their names are Betty Frantz from Weslaco, Texas; Marjorie from New York City; and Joe Trauerman Jr. from Palatka, Florida. The elder Trauerman lives in San Jose, Costa Rica. Mrs. Trauerman has passed away.

A Fort Dodge work clothes manufacturer is recognized for redesigning and remodeling the Haviland Homestead Addition home at 625 N. 13th St.—a house with a history that goes back to 1880.

He was W. V. Mulroney, who, along with his brother J. R. Mulroney, worked together for many years in running the Mulroney Manufacturing Company. The company was a well-known producer and distributor of work clothes and gloves under the brand name "Fort Brand."

The two-story frame house is now owned and lived in by Dr. and Mrs. Theodore J. Michelfelder. It's situated on two lots at the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue North and Thirteenth Street.

Room arrangement of the house after it was remodeled by Mulroney included a living room, hallway, and open stairway to the second floor, dining room, kitchen with a walk-in pantry, playroom, solarium, and enclosed back porch on the first floor; five bedrooms, a bathroom, and a sleeping porch on the second floor. Rooms now include a living room, entry hallway, parlor, dining room, kitchen, breakfast nook, bedroom, and bath on the first floor; five bedrooms, a bath, and kitchen on the second floor. An apartment area on the second floor is currently not in use.

Mulroney bought the property in 1914 and quickly updated the existing house. They dug out an extra basement, moved the house further back from the street, and rotated it to face west on Thirteenth Street. The layout was changed, and the house was modernized. In recent years, the house has also been updated by the Michelfelders and other owners. The Mulroney family lived in the home until 1932. Over the years, the house changed hands several times, with the Michelfelders purchasing it in 1966.

W. V. Mulroney was the son of pioneer settlers, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Mulroney. Born in 1867, he attended local schools and in 1890, along with his brother J. R. Mulroney, founded the 83 Mulroney Brothers General Store, which they ran until 1905 when they formed the Mulroney Manufacturing Company, starting with a plant at the southwest corner of Central Avenue and Tenth Street. After a fire destroyed this building, they built a three-story structure at First Avenue North and Seventh Street, where the company operated for many years. Eventually, it was sold to Marso & Rodenborn.

In 1927, Mulroney started the insurance business called Mulroney Insurance Agency. The agency is now run by his sons, William V. (Bill) Mulroney and Richard J. (Dick) Mulroney. The elder Mulroney married Elizabeth Howard in 1896, and they had six children: Mrs. Eleanor McKenzie, Miss Helen Mulroney, Mrs. Gertrude Barnes, Miss Elizabeth Mulroney, William, and Richard. Mulroney passed away in 1950 at the age of 82, and Mrs. Mulroney died in 1952, also at 82.

This big English-style house at 1320 10th Ave. N. was built in 1926 by Dr. Sumner B. Chase, a famous eye, ear, nose, and throat doctor. It’s currently owned and lived in by Don N. Kersten, a lawyer from Fort Dodge, his wife Merope, and their family. They bought the house in 1961.

Dr. Chase and his wife, Edith, bought lots in the newly developed Crawford-Armstrong Addition in 1922, and four years later, they built the main part of their beautiful and authentic English-style home. In 1933, they added the Tudor or playroom wing on the east side of the house.

The house has a main floor, an upstairs area, and a full basement, and there are five fireplaces of different sizes. The current layout on the first floor includes a living room, dining room, TV room, kitchen, and breakfast area that used to be a maid's room and bathroom. There’s also an entrance hallway. A recent addition to the house is a large open deck on the north side that looks out over the wooded and ravine area. The upstairs has four bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The Tudor room features a striking cathedral-style ceiling and a balcony. All the windows have leaded and stained glass that was imported from England. The furnishings include a large wooden hutch and a big refectory table with thick, carved legs. The hutch is from the Jacobean period and has panels that are said to be 400 years old. Both the hutch and table were brought over from England to enhance the British feel of the Tudor room. The ceiling light fixture in the room is made from a large wooden wheel that was once part of a horse-drawn bus that operated here in the early 1900s.

The house is in a beautiful wooded area, and there's a curved driveway that leads to the garage located under the back part of the house. The exterior is made of smooth, natural finish cement with blue and olive green wood trim.

Dr. Chase, who was originally from Waterloo, started his practice in Fort Dodge in 1916, just a year after earning his medical degree from the University of Iowa. He dedicated his entire 45-year medical career to the city, retiring in 1961 and moving to Mt. Pleasant, where he passed away in 1964 at the age of 76. His widow currently lives in Mt. Pleasant, and a daughter, Mrs. George (Rosemary) Haire, resides in Fort Dodge.

Dr. Chase was involved in county, state, and national medical organizations and served as a surgeon for the Chicago Great Western and Illinois Central Railroads. He was also a member of the American Association of Railway Surgeons.

The Kenyon name was linked to this large two-story house at 1229 2nd Ave. N. 85 from the early 1900s until 1938. Built in 1901, it was purchased in 1902 by Mrs. Harriett A. Kenyon, the widow of Rev. Fergus L. Kenyon, an early minister of the First Presbyterian Church here.

Mrs. Kenyon transferred the house in 1909 to her daughter, Miss Charlotte Kenyon, a well-known music teacher in Fort Dodge. After her death, the property was handed over in 1937 to her brother, A. M. Kenyon, an executive at the Fort Dodge Serum Company. Elmo Hoffman, a local realtor, bought the home in 1938. Both he and Mrs. Hoffman (Goldie) have passed away, and the property is now owned by the Hoffmans' daughter, Miss Vanna Hoffman.

The Hoffmans renovated the house, which now features a large apartment on the first floor that they live in, along with two smaller apartments on the second floor.

The Rev. and Mrs. Kenyon had three sons and a daughter. Their children were William S. Kenyon, who served as a United States Senator from Iowa for many years and later became a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge; A. M. (Dick) Kenyon, who worked with the serum company for many years; F. A. Kenyon, a banker in Washta; and Miss Charlotte Kenyon.

The Rev. Mr. Kenyon arrived in Fort Dodge in 1885 and served the Presbyterian Church there until the next year. He then established the Fort Dodge Collegiate Institute, which eventually became Buena Vista College. The school relocated from Fort Dodge to Hawarden and then to its current site in Storm Lake, where it is now Buena Vista College, run by the Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Mr. Kenyon passed away in 1902.

William S. Kenyon was a well-known attorney here for many years, serving as Webster County attorney and district court judge. In 1911, he was elected U.S. senator from Iowa and held that position until 1922 when he resigned from the Senate and was appointed as a federal Circuit Court judge. He had an office in the federal building here throughout his time as a judge and lived with his sister at 1229 2nd Ave. N. in Fort Dodge. In 1929, during his judicial career, Kenyon was named a member of President Herbert Hoover’s Law Enforcement Commission. Judge Kenyon passed away in 1933 at the age of 64.

A. M. Kenyon was the secretary of the Fort Dodge Serum Company (now known as Fort Dodge Laboratories) for 28 years until he retired in 1946. Two of his sons live here now—Robert P. Kenyon and Bruce Kenyon; a third son, Fergus Kenyon, lives in Lewiston, Idaho.

This solid-looking cement block house—long referred to as the ‘stone house’ or the ‘castle’—has been situated at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue North and Sixteenth Street since 1908.

Henry W. Wolfe bought the corner lot in 1903 that stretched along Sixteenth Street from Fifth to Sixth Avenues North, and five years later, he built the large house. In 1910, he constructed the cement house right to the north—at the Sixth Avenue corner.

The house at 1530 5th Ave. N. is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bocken, 831 N. 21st St., who bought it in 1965. It was converted into a duplex with two rental apartments many years ago. Each apartment features a living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor, and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor.

A unique feature of the house is the corner tower-like area that extends from the ground floor to the attic. At the roof level is a cupola with six windows and a peaked roof. Wolfe, a Spanish-American War veteran, brought back many souvenirs from the Philippine Islands, which he displayed in cases in the cupola area. There was also a mural painting of a landscape on the six sections of the wall.

Mrs. A. F. Jessen, 2442 10th Ave. N., is the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Wolfe and shares some fascinating details about the house where she lived with her parents. The original layout of the house featured a spacious living room, an entry hall, a dining room, a library with a fireplace, and a kitchen with a pantry on the first floor; four bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, with the bedroom above the library also having a fireplace.

The house was occupied by the Wolfes until 1918. In 1923, it was acquired by Dr. E. M. Van Patten, a well-known osteopathic doctor in the area, and the Van Pattens lived there for many years. Since then, the house has changed hands several times.

Wolfe built the house during his time with the Iowa Hydraulic Stone Company, which had its plant in the area where the Hormel plant is now. The company produced cement blocks, decorative stone, and specialized cast work. Wolfe was the secretary and general manager of the stone company, and F. C. Minogue was the president. After the company shut down, Wolfe worked at the Fort Dodge post office for several years. He passed away in 1955 at the age of 83, and Mrs. Wolfe died in 1970 at the age of 92.

The two-story brick house shown above was constructed on a site in the northwest part of the city that was granted by the United States to the State of Iowa in 1862. The parcel of land was part of the area later given by the state in 1874 to the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company and then in 1875 to the Des Moines and Fort Dodge Railroad Company.

Located at 510 3rd Ave. NW, it was known as the Stevens property for many years. It is now owned by Sterling Ainsworth, a great-grandson of Socrates G. Stevens, an early resident of Douglas Township. Stevens moved to Webster County in 1857 and bought a large farm in Douglas Township. Over time, the farm bordered the northwest city limits of Fort Dodge and included the location where the original Stevens home was built.

The Stevens had a daughter, Mary, who took over running the farm after her parents passed away. In 1906, she replaced the old farmhouse with the current attractive one and lived there until her death in 1929. The Stevens also had another daughter, Julia, who was married to W. C. Ainsworth. They were the parents of Harriet Ainsworth and W. L. Ainsworth, a well-known farmer and the father of Sterling Ainsworth, who now lives in the Stevens house.

The house has foundation walls made of solid granite blocks that are two feet thick. The entire house features oak woodwork, and the floors are solid oak, an inch thick. The first floor includes a living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, a large music room, and a half bath. The upstairs has four bedrooms, a sewing room, and a full bath. A porch runs along the south and east sides of the house.

Socrates G. Stevens, who started the Douglas Township farm, was born in North Carolina in 1811. After getting married in 1835, he and his wife moved to Oskaloosa in 1856, and the next year they began farming in Webster County. Their daughter, Mary, was 15 when she joined her parents in Iowa. She finished her education in Oskaloosa and later became a school teacher for 22 terms after relocating to the Fort Dodge area.

Following her mother’s death in 1888, Miss Stevens stopped teaching and stayed home to help run the farm. She was known to be one of the most capable businesswomen in Webster County, and after her father passed away in 1901, she skillfully continued managing the farm operations.

Ownership of the house and the nearby farmland was passed to Harriet Ainsworth after Miss Stevens' death in 1929. In 1939, the property was given to Sterling Ainsworth. For a period in the early 1930s, the house was rented out and became the Red Feather Inn, a popular restaurant.

This big house at 1302 10th Ave. N. was one of the first built in the Crawford-Armstrong Addition to the city after it was laid out in 1910. It was constructed in 1911 by E. F. Armstrong, a well-known pharmacist and drug company executive, and the house stayed in the Armstrong family until 1948.

It was then sold to Dr. J. J. Foley, a dentist from Fort Dodge. After his passing, the home was bought by Arthur H. Johnson and his wife, Ann. The Johnsons completely renovated the house, giving it a classic and appealing English architectural style.

The first floor has a living room, family room, dining room, kitchen, and a half bath; the second floor has three bedrooms and two full baths. The third floor features a large bedroom, a walk-in storage closet, two double closets with sliding doors, and a built-in chest of drawers. A spacious recreation room is located in the basement, which includes a sauna bathroom, a full bath, and laundry facilities.

Exterior of the house has gray cement walls with tobacco brown wood trim and a roof made of heavy split cedar shakes. The front porch and patio area feature a red brick wall—made from bricks salvaged from the old Chicago Great Western depot that was demolished years ago. Attached to the back of the house is a family room and a double garage.

The Johnsons lived in the house until the summer of 1974 when they sold it to Dr. and Mrs. Gary LeValley. The Johnsons then moved into their new home at 1640 N. 22nd St.

Armstrong, who built the house at 1302 10th Ave. N., was married to Mary Crawford, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Crawford, who were well-known early residents of Fort Dodge. Mrs. Armstrong was influential in Iowa and served on the State Conservation Commission when Dolliver State Park was dedicated in 1925. The Armstrongs had a daughter named Elizabeth.

For many years, Armstrong worked at the Oleson Drug Company as a pharmacist and vice president. Later, he was part of the Crawford-Armstrong real estate firm and managed the Fort Dodge Chemical Company.

A Fort Dodge shoe dealer, E. A. Welch, and his wife, Helen, built this charming English-style home nearly 50 years ago at 1105 Crawford Avenue. Designed by Mrs. Welch and architect Frank Griffith, the house is modeled after the Anne Hathaway Cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon, where writer William Shakespeare lived.

The two-story house has gray cedar shake siding with white wood trim and a thatched roof. The first floor features a hallway inside the front entrance, a living room with an arched entryway, a den that was converted from a former porch, a kitchen with a glassed-in dining room, a bedroom, and a bathroom.

The formal dining room on the first floor features a round walnut table with six leaves, a gift from Miss Maude Lauderdale, the first curator of the Webster County Historical Society. There are also 12 walnut chairs, a gift from O. M. Oleson, a pioneer pharmacist from Fort Dodge and the uncle of Mrs. Welch. The upstairs has two bedrooms, a full bath, and a large attic playroom. The house is currently owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Richard O. Welch and their family.

E. A. (Ed) Welch was born in Fort Dodge in 1875 and had two brothers—Sam and W. R. (Dick) Welch. Sam worked in the shoe business with Ed, while Dick ran a drug store in the Carver Building (now O’Connell Drugs).

Both Ed and Sam were sales reps for the Greene-Wheeler Shoe Manufacturing plant here for many years. In 1907, they bought the Ed Rank Shoe Store at 607 Central Ave. and ran it under the name Welch Bros. Shoes. After a year in this spot, the store moved to 818 Central Ave., where it stayed until it relocated in 1963 to its current large and attractive location at 915 Central Ave.

Richard O. Welch, son of E. A. Welch, joined his father in the shoe store in 1930. The elder Mr. Welch retired from the business in 1947 and passed away in 1953. Mrs. Welch, now 96, resides at Friendship Haven.

Dale Happ joined the company in 1952 when he and Richard Welch became the sole owners. They restructured the business as the Welch Shoe Company, with Welch as president and Happ as vice president and treasurer. The sale of the store to four employees was announced in late January, with Robert L. Thiele as one of the buyers, taking on the role of president and general manager. Welch will stay on as a consultant and assistant for a year. Happ will still be associated with the store but will take an extended leave of absence.

The two-family home shown here is thought to be the first of its kind built in the city, with its history dating back to 1870, according to city assessor’s records. Situated at the northwest corner of Third Avenue North and Tenth Street, the house was the residence of Andrew J. Haviland, a well-known horticulturist, who arrived in Webster County in 1855.

Old photos of the house reveal that it hasn't changed much since it was built 105 years ago. It’s a two-story frame construction with two identical apartments, located at 926 and 928 3rd Ave. N. Each apartment features a living room, dining room, kitchen, and utility room on the first floor, and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor.

There is a basement area where you can see old hand-hewn beams, and there’s a tunnel that goes from the furnace room to the outside to make it easier to remove ashes.

The house is currently owned by Mrs. John K. Jensen from Palatine, Ill., and her son John K. Jensen Jr. from Green Bay, Wis. Mrs. Jensen is the daughter of K. D. Miller, who used to be the superintendent of schools in Fort Dodge and bought the property in 1939 from the estate of Rowena H. Haviland.

A. J. Haviland was born in Pawlings, NY, in 1820 and did some carriage making and contracting in the East before moving to Webster County in 1855. He settled in Cooper Township north of the city, where he farmed for six years. He then moved to Fort Dodge and built the Third Avenue North residence in 1870. He lived there with his wife, Mary Colby, and their four children.

Two years after he arrived in the county, he started the Fort Dodge Nursery at the north edge of the city and ran it alongside his farm. He was a respected horticulturist and was recognized throughout the northwest part of the state as an expert in this field. After he passed away in 1888, Mrs. Haviland and their children continued to live in the old homestead until her death in 1901.

Historians note that “The Evergreens” at the north side of the city, which was once a nursery run by A. J. Haviland, was “one of the most beautiful places to be found in or around Fort 91 Dodge.” W. C. Haviland, the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Haviland, was recognized for planting the first apple trees in Cooper Township. Later, he owned the large apple orchard at the north edge of the city.

A graduate pharmacist, who later produced mineral feeds for livestock, built this impressive Snell Place home at 810 Northwood Avenue in 1922. He was Ed S. Joselyn, who moved his manufacturing operations from Rockwell City to Fort Dodge in 1921 and continued doing business here until 1930.

Mr. and Mrs. Joselyn and their family lived in this big house until 1932 when they sold it to Charles A. Helsell, a lawyer from Fort Dodge. Helsell was moved to Chicago in 1938 to become the solicitor general for the Illinois Central Railroad, and then the house was sold to Dr. and Mrs. E. F. Beeh.

Present owners of the home are Herbert Bennett, an attorney from Fort Dodge, and his wife, Geraldine, who bought the property in 1964 from Dr. Beeh's estate. They live in the lovely house with their daughters, Karen and twins Kathy and Kris.

The house features large white columns that rise up to the roof and frame the front entrance, which is characteristic of its Colonial architectural style. An arched front door leads into a spacious hallway with a staircase going up to the second floor. The first floor consists of a living room with a big red brick fireplace and white woodwork, a dining room, a kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a breakfast room, a library, and a sunroom. The second floor has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a sewing room, and a large cedar closet. The third floor includes a big party room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom.

At the back of the house, there’s a big garden with a terraced slope, a small "teahouse," a bridge over the ravine, flower beds, and a garage.

Joselyn was originally from New York state, and after finishing his pharmacy studies, he moved to Stratford to work in the pharmacy business. Later, he relocated to Rockwell City, where he founded the Joselyn Stock Food Company and started making animal feed. He moved his operations to the Brady building in 1921. Joselyn closed the business in 1930 and, in 1934, moved to Webster City, where he ran a drugstore. He passed away in 1941 at the age of 73.

Mr. and Mrs. Joselyn were parents of three children—Robert from Chicago; Marion from the Joselyn Press Printing & Stationery firm in Fort Dodge; and their daughter, Catherine from Palmerton, PA.

Dr. J. W. Kime, a physician and surgeon in Fort Dodge, who was responsible for getting the city to switch its water source from the Des Moines River to deep artesian wells, built this large house in 1918.

Dr. Kime arrived here in 1884 and started practicing medicine generally before focusing on treating tuberculosis at his sanatorium just north of the city. He constructed his lovely home at 728 Crest Ave. after Snell Place was developed in 1915. It features a mix of red brick and local natural stone on the outside.

The home is now owned by Jack and Mrs. Fletcher, who bought the property in 1971. The Fletchers live there with their two daughters and a son—Kathy, Jody, and David. Another daughter, Mrs. Bobby Clark, lives in Omaha, Nebraska. Previous owners include Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Stowe, Dr. and Mrs. Arthur P. Echternacht, and Dr. John D. Rasmussen.

The house has three stories and a basement. On the first floor, there’s a spacious living room, a sunroom, a dining room, a kitchen, a half bath, and an entryway. The second floor features four bedrooms and a full bath; the third floor has two rooms. The basement includes a large family room.

Dr. Kime was born in Shelby County in 1855 and started general studies at the University of Iowa at 18. He later studied medicine and earned his medical degree in 1883. After spending a year in Angus, he moved to Fort Dodge in 1884.

In relation to his treatment of tuberculosis, Dr. Kime built a large sanatorium a quarter mile north of the city limits. Made of brick and stone, it was well-known for many years as Kime’s Sanatorium Boulder Lodge.

After the sanatorium was closed down, the building was turned into apartments and for many years was home to Mrs. Jett Wray, who also renovated it into an elaborate venue for parties and dinners. She renamed it Wraywood, and the current Wraywood Manor apartments are built around the original structure. At one time, the building was also a popular nightclub.

Dr. Kime was a state lecturer on tuberculosis and involved in medical organizations. His wife, Sara, was also a trained physician and helped him with his work. They had two daughters—Marian and Isabelle.

Interested in city matters, Dr. Kime was elected to the city council for one term under the ward system of government. He was a proponent of pure drinking water and campaigned for many years to get water from deep wells. It was largely due to his efforts that the city started drilling deep artesian wells and using that water for city needs. The first well was completed in 1907, and there are now seven such wells in operation.

A Fort Dodge architect, E. O. Damon Jr., who started his career as a naval architect, designed and built this Colonial-style Snell Place home in 1916. He and his family lived in the home for many years while he was occupied designing numerous houses and buildings.

Damon passed away in 1948 at the age of 72, and in 1949, the house was sold to Paul E. McCarville, a lawyer from Fort Dodge, and his wife, Helen, who have lived there ever since.

Located at 710 Northwood Ave., the three-story brick house faces east. At the back of the house, attached to the garage, is a large screened-in summer porch that the McCarvilles built a few years ago. It has been a favorite spot for the McCarvilles and their family, which includes two daughters—Mrs. Mary Alice Coleman from Fort Dodge and Mrs. Carl A. Nelson from Wayzata, Minn.

The house has a classic colonial style with white shutters on the first-floor windows and green shutters on the second-floor windows. The third-floor windows are placed in dormers. A large hallway runs east to west through the house from the front door, and there’s a staircase with a mahogany railing and white spindles leading from the first to the third floor.

The first floor has a big living room with a fireplace, a dining room, a sunroom, a butler’s pantry, a second pantry, and a half bath. The second floor features a master bedroom, two other spacious bedrooms, a sunporch, a study, a children's room, and two full baths. On the third floor, there’s a sitting room, a bedroom, a bath, and attic storage space. All the woodwork in the house is white, but the doors are dark mahogany.

A large pastel landscape hangs above the fireplace in the living room. The original painting shows a charming countryside scene and was created by Robert Reaser, a well-known artist who lived in Fort Dodge for a while.

Damon, originally from Northampton, Massachusetts, received his naval architecture training in Scotland. He came back to the U.S., worked for a while in the South, and then moved to Fort Dodge in 1912. He was married to Georgia Mason, and after Snell Place was developed, they built their home on Northwood Ave. Damon was well-known for his architectural work, which included the addition to Mercy Hospital (now Trinity East), City Hall, and Wahkonsa School.

The Damons had two sons, Mason Damon from Buffalo, N.Y., and Kent Damon from Rochester, N.Y. After the death of his first wife, Damon married Edna Wheeler Dougherty.

A local from Fort Dodge—Jack Haire—who worked in the lumber industry here for 45 years, built this Snell Place home in 1922. It is located at 815 Northwood Ave.

The house is now owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Glenn R. Schnurr, who bought it in 1960. Schnurr is the vice president of the Federal Mortgage and Investment Company in Fort Dodge. The Schnurrs have five kids—Matt, Sally, Donald, Pat, and Tom.

The home has large rooms, including a living room, dining room, library, kitchen, butler’s pantry, breakfast room, and a bathroom on the first floor. The second floor features five bedrooms, a sleeping porch, and three bathrooms. There's a recreation room in the basement. At one point, there was a tennis court in the area just south of the house.

Jack Haire was the son of John Haire, a pioneering businessman in Fort Dodge. Born in 1877, he went to local schools and later graduated from the Des Moines College of Pharmacy. He partnered with his brother, Will W. Haire, in the Sackett & Haire Drug Store for 10 years before moving into the lumber business.

In 1909, Jack Haire and George W. Mason, a partner at the Mason & O’Connell Lumber Company, bought the Chapin Lumber Yard at First Avenue North and Sixth Street. They renamed it the Fort Dodge Lumber Company, which operated until 1954 when it was sold to the Joyce Lumber Company. The Joyce company continued to operate at the First Avenue North location for the next five years.

Haire’s two sons teamed up with their dad in the lumber business—George in 1931 and John in 1935—and they stayed involved in managing it until the company was sold to the Joyce Company. Jack Haire stepped away from the lumber business in 1954. He passed away in 1962 at the age of 85.

Haire was well-known in state lumber circles and involved in Fort Dodge activities. He was a director of the Fort Dodge Serum Company, the State Bank, and the Fort Dodge Telephone Company.

Married in 1907 to Margaret Mason, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Mason, they were parents of three sons—George and John, both from Fort Dodge; and Dr. Mason Haire, from Boston, Mass.

Dr. E. M. Kersten, founder of the Kersten Clinic in Fort Dodge, built this large Snell Place home at 712 Crest Ave. in 1924, and it was lived in by the Kersten family until 1959.

Dr. Kersten, a well-known surgeon, arrived in Fort Dodge in 1916 and practiced there until 1957, except for two years when he served in World War I with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. He held the rank of first lieutenant in the Medical Corps and was in charge of Field Hospital No. 34 overseas.

The two-story brick house features a layout with an entry hall, living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor, while the second floor has four bedrooms and a bathroom. There's also a family room at the landing halfway up the stairs to the second floor. The attic on the third floor has two large rooms that the family uses for recreation. Years ago, an amateur (ham) radio unit was set up there and was used a lot.

The home is now owned and lived in by Fred Breen, an attorney in Fort Dodge, and his wife. They bought it in 1972.

Dr. Kersten was born in 1892 in De Pere, Wisconsin, a suburb of Green Bay. After going to school there, he enrolled in Marquette University’s Medical School and graduated in 1913. He started his practice in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and stayed there until 1916 when he moved to Fort Dodge.

He got married in 1917, and he and Mrs. Kersten had five children—all of whom grew up in their home on Crest Avenue. They are Drs. Herbert, Paul, and John Kersten from Fort Dodge; Don Kersten, an attorney in Fort Dodge; and Mrs. William (Frances Anne) Wolfe from Chicago.

Following his service in World War I, Dr. Kersten came back to Fort Dodge and started practicing medicine with Dr. F. E. Seymour in the Snell Building. He later worked in the Carver Building until he established the Kersten Clinic in 1952. His three doctor sons joined the clinic’s medical staff after it was founded.

Dr. Kersten was one of the state's leading surgeons for over 40 years while he practiced here and was part of professional organizations during that time. He was connected to the clinic until he passed away in 1957 at the age of 65.

A Fort Dodge couple—Mr. and Mrs. Willis F. Rich—built this large brick house at 701 Northwood Ave. in 1924 and have lived there ever since. The Riches designed and constructed the home over 50 years ago, raised their family of three children there, and have been residents throughout that time.

The elegant English-style home was built with red bricks and had a red tile roof. The house is surrounded by trees, and green ivy vines creep up the north and west sides.

The house has big and cozy rooms on the first floor—living room with a fireplace, sunroom, entry hall, dining room, kitchen, breakfast room, and a half bath. All the floors are hardwood. The second floor features a master bedroom, sleeping porch, three other bedrooms, a bathroom, and a sunporch.

Insulation materials weren't used in 1924, but architect E. O. Damon’s plans included four dead-air spaces to act as insulation in the house between the outer brick wall and the inner plastered wall. This method was effective.

Rich comes from a family of bankers, with his father, E. H. Rich, being one of the early prominent bankers in the area. He followed in his father's footsteps and in 1932 became the cashier of the First Trust & Savings Bank and assistant cashier of the original First National Bank. During that time, he left the bank to go into property management, real estate, insurance, and loans. Mrs. Rich was his partner in the business.

At one time, the Riches were in charge of 100 city properties and 45 farms. Later, he became the president of the Union State Bank of Rockwell City and served as director of the Pocahontas State Bank and the Renwick Savings Bank.

Rich has been a member of the First Presbyterian Church here since 1899 and now has the distinction of being a member of the congregation longer than any other living person. He is a veteran of World War I.

Mr. and Mrs. Rich have three children: Willis F. Rich Jr. from Minneapolis, Mrs. J. C. (Eunice) Norby from Pasadena, California, and Robert E. Rich from Centerville. Mr. and Mrs. Rich love traveling in their trailer and have visited every state except Alaska and Hawaii. In 1972, Rich sold his business due to hearing difficulties, and he says they’re now enjoying their retirement at the “old homestead” more than ever.

This solid brick house at 775 Crest Avenue was built in 1919 by the late L. E. Armstrong, a business and industrial leader in Fort Dodge. It was bought in 1941 by K. S. Fantle and in 1954 by its current resident, C. M. Bodensteiner, president of Fort Dodge By-Products.

The house is 100 feet long, with a red tile roof. There's a quaint “tea house” on the property and a two-story garage with living space on the second floor.

The house's first floor includes a living room, dining room, kitchen, butler's pantry, den, four bedrooms, and two full bathrooms along with two half baths.

The second floor has a living room, dining room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a den.

The third floor features two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kids' playroom.

The house features oak ceiling beams in the downstairs rooms, and the living room has oak-paneled walls. At the top of the living room walls is a decorative border of cut velvet that was originally installed when the house was built. An oak staircase leads to the second floor, where the staircase and upper floor areas are adorned with imported tooled leather wallpaper hung by Italian craftsmen. The original grand staircase had a lounge area halfway between the first and second floors, which included a grand piano.

Armstrong started his business in Fort Dodge in 1886, opening the Plymouth Clothing Store at Central Avenue and Sixth Street. He advertised the store in a distinctive way by buying what was said to be the first car delivered in Iowa in 1899, a Winton that cost $1,000. He attached a pony cart to the car and took customers and friends for a ride from his store around the 98 City Square and back.

After buying clay and gypsum land in the area, Armstrong founded the Plymouth Gypsum Company in 1903 and the Plymouth Clay Products Company in 1910. Ten years later, he set up the Iowana Gypsum Company. Both were sold in 1922 to the Universal Gypsum Company, which is the predecessor of the National Gypsum Company currently operating here. Armstrong also established the Plymouth Processing Mill for soybeans.

Armstrong was the president of the Fort Dodge National Bank (now the First National) from 1924 to 1936. He was passionate about promoting Fort Dodge and the surrounding area, and in 1919, he organized the Hawkeye Fair & Exposition, serving as its president. He also served as president of the Fort Dodge Chamber of Commerce from 1916 to 1919.

The house at 911 Northwood Ave. was for many years the home of Charles C. Laufersweiler, a well-known funeral home operator and the son of a pioneering Fort Dodge businessman. Laufersweiler bought the home in 1918 and lived there until he passed away in 1941 at the age of 72. His wife continued to live there until her death in 1943.

Mr. and Mrs. Welch Laufersweiler bought the house in 1945 and have lived there with their family ever since. The house has a red brick and stucco exterior.

The current layout on the first floor includes an entry hall, sunroom, living room with a fireplace, dining room, kitchen, half bath, and family room with a fireplace and full bath. The second floor features a hall, five bedrooms, and a bathroom; the third floor has a large bedroom and a walk-in cedar closet.

Mr. and Mrs. Welch Laufersweiler had three daughters and four sons—Mrs. James (Ann) Tornabane, Mrs. Edward (Jean) Micus, Susan, Thomas, John, and Joseph. Their son Mark passed away in 1971.

Charles C. Laufersweiler was born in Fort Dodge in 1868, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Conrad C. Laufersweiler, who started a furniture and funeral business here in 1856. He was one of ten children in the family, which included Mary, who was married to Gus Hilton; their son is Conrad G. Hilton, the hotel mogul; Bertha, Kitty, twins Edith and Elsie; William J., John, Albert, and Frank.

Charles joined his father in the funeral business in 1893, while William J. ran the furniture store. In 1914, the funeral business relocated from its Central Avenue spot to a new three-story building at the corner of First Avenue South and Eleventh Street. The first floor and basement were used for the mortuary, and there were apartments on the second and third floors. The furniture store stayed in business until 1929.

In 1952, the Laufersweiler Funeral Home built its current large structure at Third Avenue South and Twelfth Street. Welch Laufersweiler joined his father, Charles, in the funeral home in 1930. He has been the owner and operator of the business since 1941.

This is another one of the charming Snell Place homes built in the 1920s. Situated at 704 Crest Avenue, it was owned and lived in by the B. B. Burnquist family for many years.

Built in 1924 by Emmett Mulholland, a lawyer from Fort Dodge, the house has been home to various attorneys, doctors, and a packing plant executive over the years. Mulholland sold the house to the Burnquists in 1927 when he and his wife, Mrs. Mulholland, moved to Long Beach, California. Currently, it is owned by John J. Murray, a Fort Dodge attorney, and his wife, Joan. The Murrays bought the house in 1961 and now live there with their four children—John, Mike, Steve, and Sheila.

The first floor of the house has an entrance hall, a living room with a fireplace, a dining room, a kitchen, a den with a half bath, and a sunroom. The second floor features four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and another sunroom. The Murrays renovated the basement into a recreation room. They also updated the kitchen, adding a Franklin stove and transforming it into a "country kitchen."

Mr. and Mrs. Murray added a double garage and a large concrete patio with historic wrought iron railing. The railing came from the balconies of the Oleson Building at Central Avenue and Eighth Street when it was torn down to make room for the City Green parking lot.

B. B. Burnquist, who practiced law in Fort Dodge for 60 years, was originally from Dayton. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Burnquist and was born in 1884. He attended schools in Dayton and graduated from Fort Dodge High School. He earned his law degree from the University of Iowa in 1907 and started practicing in Fort Dodge. Burnquist worked with various law firms, beginning with the Healy brothers. Later, he was part of the firms Healy, Burnquist & Thomas; Price & Burnquist; Helsell, Burnquist, Bradshaw & Dolliver; and Helsell & Burnquist.

Burnquist was a significant figure in Republican politics, serving as the chairman of the Webster County Republicans, the state Republican chairman, and the Webster County attorney. He passed away in 1967 at the age of 83; Mrs. Burnquist had died in 1964. They had four children: two sons, William S. Burnquist and Boyd Burnquist; and two daughters, Mrs. N. H. (Betty) Batchelder and Mrs. Howard (Caroline) Borgerding.

Walter J. Moeller, owner of the Fort Dodge furnace company, bought this house at 1324 3rd Ave. S. soon after it was built in 1906. His father, Ferdinand, an early carpenter and brickmaker in the area, constructed the two-story home on a lot he bought in 1889.

Late in 1906, the house was sold to Walter J. Moeller, and he and his wife, Elizabeth Zuerrer, moved in. The two-story home has eight rooms—living room, parlor, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom on the first floor; three bedrooms on the second floor.

Walter J. Moeller was born in the Vincent area of Webster County, in a family of five kids. His siblings included Frank C. Moeller, a well-known banker for many years; William H. Moeller, who owned a dry goods store; and two sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Zuerrer and Mrs. Clara Zuerrer. He went to school in Vincent and Fort Dodge when his parents relocated there. He started his business career at the Furlong & Brennan grocery and general merchandise store on the city square.

In 1912, Moeller and Oscar Dahlien partnered up and started the Dahlien & Moeller Furnace Company at 115 S. 12th St. They worked together until 1915 when their partnership ended. Moeller then launched his own business, the Moeller Furnace Company, in a new three-story brick building at 114 S. 12th St.—the current location of the company. The first floor and basement of the building are dedicated to the company's furnace, air conditioning, and sheet metal operations. The upper floors of the building contain apartments.

Moeller was joined in running the business by two of his sons—Walter E. (Bud) Moeller in 1927 and Willis H. Moeller in 1945. A third son, Art F. Moeller, was with the company for a short time but then started his own business career. In 1957, Art and Henry R. (Bud) Trost 101 set up the Trost-Moeller Insurance Service, Inc., which they currently operate.

Walter J. Moeller retired from the furnace company in 1946, and the business has since been run by his sons, Bud and Willis. Mr. Moeller passed away in 1966 at the age of 86. Mrs. Moeller died in 1958. The family home on Third Avenue South is now owned by the three Moeller sons and is currently being rented out.

A Fort Dodge clothier—Charles A. Brown—built this Snell Place residence in 1923. Located at 1102 Summit Ave., the spacious two-story brick home was lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Brown and their family until it was sold in 1939 to Mr. and Mrs. E. M. (Ed) Klapka. At that point, the Browns relocated to California.

Present owners and residents of the house are Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Woodruff, who bought it in 1968 from Klapka’s widow, Pauline. Klapka served as the executive vice president of the Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Fort Dodge since it was established in 1919. He passed away in 1967. In the same year, Home Federal merged with First Federal Savings and Loan Association.

Woodruff is a partner at Woodruff-Evans Construction in Fort Dodge. The Woodruffs and their family have lived in the Summit Avenue home since the fall of 1968. Their kids include two daughters, Anne and Laura, and four sons, David, Tom, and twins Don and Bill.

The layout of the house on the first floor includes an entrance hall, living room, dining room, sun porch, kitchen, breakfast room, and a room for dealing with dirty clothes, muddy shoes, and boots, along with a closet and a bathroom. On the second floor, there are four bedrooms, a sun porch, and two bathrooms. There's an additional room with a bathroom for the Woodruff girls on the third floor. The basement features a recreation room for kids.

Charles A. Brown arrived in Fort Dodge in the 1890s and started working for L. E. Armstrong at the Plymouth Clothing House. He stayed with Plymouth until 1908, when he bought the store and renamed it Charles A. Brown, the Plymouth Clothier. In 1903, Harry L. Kurtz began working at the store, and after Brown acquired the business, Kurtz became a partner in the store. 102

The Plymouth stayed at Central Avenue and Sixth Street until 1914 when Brown rented the first floor of the new Snell Building and opened a big store there. The store remained there until 1927 when it moved to its current location at 917 Central Ave.

Brown was involved in the store until he sold his Snell Place home in 1939 and moved to California. Kurtz then took over management of the business. Later, Brown sold his share to Robert R. Kurtz and Richard F. Rosien, who are now officers of the firm. Harry Kurtz retired in 1964.

Brown and his wife had two children—Walter, who has passed away; and Marian, Mrs. Malcom Beck of Montebello, California. Brown died in 1965 at the age of 88. Mrs. Brown has also passed away.

Harry L. Kurtz, a Fort Dodge clothing retailer for over 60 years who earned the title “Fort Dodge and Iowa booster extraordinary,” built this home in 1916 directly across the street from Duncombe Athletic Field.

The two-story house with a stucco exterior was his home until he passed away in 1970 at the age of 86. It remained the Kurtz family home until Mrs. Kurtz died in 1973, after which it was sold to Mrs. Margaret G. Siefert, who currently lives there.

Duncombe Field was the home of Fort Dodge High School sports teams from 1915 until 1940 when Dodger Stadium was opened. During these 25 years, football games, track meets, and other school events took place at Duncombe Field, practically in the Kurtz's front yard.

The Kurtz home at 1636 7th Ave. N. has this room layout—living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, sunroom, and enclosed patio area on the first floor; two bedrooms and a large storage area on the second floor.

Kurtz arrived in Fort Dodge in 1903 from his hometown of Lisbon and started working for L. E. Armstrong at the Plymouth Clothing House on Central Avenue and Sixth Street. When Charles A. Brown bought the Plymouth in 1908 and renamed it Charles A. Brown, the Plymouth Clothier, Kurtz became a partner in the business. The store stayed at Central and Sixth until 1914 when it relocated to the new Snell Building at Central and Eighth, taking over the first floor. At this location, the store was regarded as “the finest men’s store in Iowa.”

In 1927, the store moved to 917 Central, where it has been ever since. Brown retired and relocated to California, after which Kurtz took over the active management of the business. He served as manager and vice president until his retirement in 1964. In 1951, Kurtz was joined in running the store by his son Robert R. Kurtz, who is now the president of the company. Richard R. Rosien became a part owner in 1959 and is the secretary-treasurer.

Kurtz was engaged in community activities throughout his lengthy career as a retail clothier and was a member of the Riverfront Commission that developed Loomis Park. He served on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce and the Betterment Foundation, was the chairman of the Associated Retailers, and was a member of the Rotary Club and the Masonic Orders.

Kurtz and his wife, Lucile, were the parents of three kids—Robert R., Mrs. Worley (Betty) Brown, and Jane, who was Robert's twin and has now passed away.

The charming two-story frame house at 1721 8th Ave. S. was the home of Daniel Rhodes, a well-known abstractor and insurance agent in Fort Dodge, and his family for nearly 40 years. Rhodes bought the house in 1909, shortly after it was built. In 1921, he fully remodeled and updated both the exterior and interior of the house.

When the Rhodes family moved into the house, the property was beautifully landscaped with trees and bushes. They had planted Duchess, Wealthy, and Whitney apples, plums, cherries, mulberries, butternut, hard and soft maple, oak, elm, and fir trees. All of them are now gone.

After its remodel, the house had this layout: first floor—hall and music room, living room with a fireplace, sun porch, dining room, butler's pantry, kitchen, and breakfast room; second floor—four bedrooms, a sleeping porch, and a bathroom. The dining room features walnut woodwork and a built-in walnut buffet. All the other downstairs woodwork is natural-finish oak.

Rhodes passed away in 1946 at the age of 76 after a successful business career. Mrs. Rhodes and her family continued to live in the home until 1948 when it was sold to John R. O’Neill and his sister, Ruth O’Neill. Later, the property was owned by Miss O’Neill and her sisters, Mrs. Maude Kempley and Mrs. Marie Geiger. They sold the home in 1961 to Dr. and Mrs. Charles L. Dagle, who currently live there with their children. Dr. Dagle is affiliated with the Kersten Clinic.

Rhodes was born in 1870 on a farm southeast of Fort Dodge. He attended local schools and graduated from Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa). He taught school for a while and then partnered with J. B. Butler in the firm of Butler & Rhodes, which dealt with abstracts, real estate, and insurance. In later years, Rhodes became president of the Home Building & Loan Association and served as an officer of the Iowa Savings Bank. After his death, the Butler & Rhodes business was sold in 1947 to James Fitzgerald.

Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes had three kids—Miss Rachel Rhodes from Fort Dodge; Thomas J. Rhodes from Fallbrook, California; and Daniel Rhodes from Santa Cruz, California. Mrs. Rhodes passed away in 1973 at the age of 91.

Henry Trost, who arrived in Fort Dodge in 1883 from Germany, later became a prominent realtor and insurance agent. He built this large house at 1231 6th Ave. S. over 70 years ago. Trost purchased a lot on Sixth Avenue South in the spring of 1901 and constructed the home later that same year.

The Trost family lived in the house until 1913 when it was sold. Ownership changed hands several times, and in 1966, Melvin Mandelko sold the house to Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Yetmar, who currently live there with their six children. Yetmar is connected with the Kolacia Construction Company. 105

The original layout of the house featured an entrance hall, living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and bath on the first floor, along with four bedrooms and a bath on the second floor. Later, sun porches were added to the back of the house on both levels. The Yetmars have made some renovations, replacing the first-floor bedroom with a family room and turning the second floor into five bedrooms, two baths, and a children's room. They also remodeled and modernized the front porch.

Trost worked as a section hand for the M. & St. L. Railroad during his first four years in Fort Dodge and later became a salesman at the Haire Clothing Store. After several years, he teamed up with James H. Coughlin to create the real estate and insurance firm Coughlin & Trost. When this firm was disbanded, he partnered with E. H. Peschau to form the real estate and insurance company Trost & Peschau. When illness forced him to stop working, the business was bought in 1937 by Trost’s son Ewald G. Trost and his wife Ermalee. They ran it until 1957, when Art F. Moeller and Henry R. (Bud) Trost started Trost-Moeller Insurance Service, which they currently operate.

The elder Henry Trost got married here in 1891 to Anna Gunther, and they had six children—Frieda Becker, Erna, Ewald, Lorenz, Marie, and Esther Trost. Everyone has passed away except for Mrs. Becker and Esther Trost. Mr. Trost died in 1937 at the age of 70. Mrs. Trost died in 1964 at the age of 92.

The white Colonial-style house with green shutters at 919 Northwood Ave. was built by Dr. A. E. Acher, a physician and surgeon from Fort Dodge who practiced here for nearly 60 years. This charming home in Snell Place was constructed in 1926.

The house was lived in by the Acher family until 1968 when it was sold to the current owners—Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. McQueen. The McQueens have two sons, Scott and Todd. McQueen is a vice president of processing at Land O’Lakes-Felco.

When the house was built, it had this room layout: a living room with a fireplace, a dining room, a sitting room, a kitchen, a pantry, a family room, and a half bath on the first floor; and four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a sewing room on the second floor. The McQueens have remodeled a bit, turning the pantry into part of a bigger kitchen and changing the sewing room on the second floor into a combined laundry and sewing room.

Dr. Acher was born in 1878 in Napoleon, Ohio, where he finished his early education and then taught school for three years. He enrolled at the University of Indiana and graduated from medical school in 1905. After interning in Indianapolis for two years, he moved to Fort Dodge in 1907 and started his medical practice.

For many years, Dr. Acher had his office in the old First National Bank Building (now the Beh Building) at Central Avenue and Seventh Street. Later, he worked in the Crawford Building at Central and Sixth. He was active in local and state medical associations. His hobby was bowling, and he was well-known in local leagues. He also designed and constructed the Acher Apartment building on North Eleventh Street.

Dr. Acher was married to Miss Marcia Pierson from Indianapolis, and they had three sons—Chandler, Chester, and Carlton. After the death of his first wife, he married Clara Collingsworth from Fort Dodge. Dr. Acher passed away in Fort Dodge in 1964 at the age of 86.

Otto Wasem, one of the seven brothers who played a significant role in the gypsum industry in Fort Dodge and Webster County through the operations of the Wasem Plaster Company, built this brick home in 1921. The two-story house with a red tile roof is located at 827 8th Ave. N.

The home was owned and lived in by the Wasem family until 1955 when it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Hesley. In 1965, it was bought by Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Fournier, who currently live there with their family. Their children are Debra, Denise (Mrs. Bart Mundie), Doreen, Deanne, and Michael. Fournier works at a Geo. A. Hormel & Co. plant. 107

Interior layout of the Fournier home features a living room, dining room, den, kitchen, and half bath on the first floor; four bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. There's also a spacious enclosed front porch.

Otto Wasem bought the lot at 827 8th Ave. N. in 1921, and that same year, he built a cozy and inviting home that the family lived in for 34 years. Wasem and his wife, Hannah, had three daughters: Mrs. Daniel E. (Mary Louise) Noble, Mrs. A. T. (Rachel) La Prade, and Mrs. James B. (Evelyn) Phillips. All of them live in Phoenix, Arizona.

Wasem was the treasurer and general manager of the Wasem Plaster Company, which was established here in 1909. It was a family venture with 13 brothers and sisters as the owners. The Wasem plant was located southeast of the city on a 160-acre piece of land rich in gypsum rock. Operations started in 1910 and continued in the original mill until it was destroyed by fire in 1918. A new fireproof plant was then built and started operating in 1920. The company produced and sold hollow gypsum tile and marketed gypsum board from other plants under the Wasem brand.

Otto Wasem was the first general manager of the company and held that position from 1909 until the early 1930s. Henry Wasem, the company's first secretary, served as president in the 1930s. In 1950, the Wasem Plaster Company was sold to the Celotex Corporation, which built a large, modern plant along the Coalville blacktop in 1956. The Wasem plant was then closed and taken apart, but the structure still remains.

Mr. and Mrs. Wasem moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where they lived for several years. Both have since passed away.

City assessor records indicate that this solid brick house at 905 6th Ave. N. was constructed in 1914 by James L. Kempley, a well-known real estate agent who has been in the area for many years. It represents the style of brick homes built in the city during the 1910-1920 period.

The Kempley family lived in the house until 1918 when they sold it to L. W. Scheideman. The Scheidemans stayed in the ten-room house until 1928 when they sold it to William F. Alpers. Edmund G. Engelhardt bought the house in 1944 and owned it until 1974, when it was purchased by Joseph C. Mosbrucker, a realtor from Fort Dodge.

The house originally had a front entryway, a living room with a fireplace, a dining room, a music room, a sewing room, a kitchen, a laundry room, and a half bath on the first floor. The second floor featured four bedrooms and a bathroom, and there was a large attic used for recreation. A spacious porch ran across the front of the house. In recent years, the house has been remodeled and now includes two apartments.

Kempley was the son of John Kempley, who was from England and moved to the United States in 1842, settling in Racine, Wisconsin. In 1864, the family relocated to a farm near Fort Dodge, and later they moved to Fort Dodge, where Kempley was involved in the community, constructing buildings on South Sixth Street.

James L. Kempley was one of nine siblings. After going to local schools, he started working here and was employed by the Standard Oil Company for many years as a tank wagon driver. His horse-drawn tank wagon delivered kerosene to farms in the area.

In 1914, Kempley left his job at the oil company and entered the real estate business. He later partnered with his son-in-law, Earl C. Codner, in the real estate firm Kempley & Codner. Kempley constructed several homes in the city, including 903 6th Ave. N., 905 6th Ave. N., and 1116 4th Ave. N.

Kempley and his wife had six kids—three boys and three girls: Walter V. James, Thomas, Mrs. Charles (Marie) Klinger, Mrs. Earl C. (Mae) Codner, and Mrs. Jay (Edna) Van Horn. Kempley passed away in 1942 at the age of 82.

The big two-story house (shown above) is located at 1026 2nd Ave. S. and was built in 1896 by John H. Pearsons, the son of a former mayor of Fort Dodge.

The house is now owned by Martin Cacioppo, who bought it in 1944. He recently retired after 55 years running a grocery and meat market here.

There are 10 rooms in the house that have been remodeled and modernized in recent years. The current room arrangement is as follows: living room, dining room, entrance hall, kitchen, bedroom, and half bath on the first floor; two bedrooms and a three-room apartment on the second floor.

Cacioppo, originally from Italy, moved to the United States in 1910 and lived in Omaha for six years before settling in Fort Dodge. He is a widower; his wife passed away in 1971. Their family includes Tony, Mrs. Ernest (Marguerite) Peterson, and James.

The big house on Second Avenue South is in the East Fort Dodge addition to the city. One of the first owners of the property was Thomas Snell, who bought building lots there in 1856. In 1871, he sold the lot where the house is situated to E. G. Morgan, an early banker in Fort Dodge. Morgan then sold the lot in 1892 to John F. Duncombe. John H. Pearsons bought the property in 1896 and built the large house that same year.

In later years, the home was owned by Margaret Mason Haire and Peter J. Rodenborn. The Rodenborns sold the house in 1944 to Cacioppo.

John Pearsons was the son of George R. Pearsons, who was the mayor of Fort Dodge in 1873, 1899, and 1900 and built the Dolliver home, now known as the Women’s Clubhouse. John was the brother of Louise Pearsons, who was married to United States Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver from Fort Dodge. He had farming and other interests in the area. Shortly after the turn of the century, he moved to California, where he owned farmland.

The John J. Brady Sr. home—commonly referred to as “Jon-Mar”—was built in 1935 at 1631 N. 22nd St. This stylish brick house features a distinctive architectural design and sits on a two-acre plot of land.

Brady, a well-known trucking tycoon who grew a trucking business from a small Fort Dodge delivery service to a $30,000,000 annual operation, bought 40 acres of farmland in 1934 just outside the northeast city limits. When the land was divided into plots, he kept eight acres for his house, but much later, six of those acres were developed and sold as building lots.

The home is now owned by David A. Opheim, a Fort Dodge attorney, and his wife, Mary Ellen, who bought it in 1969 from Joe Bryant. Before that, it was owned by George Schnurr, who bought it from Brady in 1959. The Opheims live in the home with their children, Kristen and Matthew.

The current layout of the house features a spacious living room on the first floor, complete with a circular staircase leading up to the second floor. This staircase is located in a turret-like section of the house that has a pointed roof. The stairway is adorned with white wrought iron spindles and a large curved wooden railing painted in aqua blue.

Other downstairs rooms include the sunroom, dining room, family room, kitchen, and half bath. The second floor has five bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Brady was born in 1893 on a farm northwest of Fort Dodge and moved to the city with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Brady, when he was five years old. His father bought and sold draft horses for eastern markets. When a man in Fort Dodge couldn't pay for horses used in a delivery service, they were repossessed, and Brady's father got his son involved in the dray business. 111

When Brady's father passed away in 1911, John Brady took over the operations and started the Brady Moving & Storage Company, as well as the Brady Motorfrate Company, which grew into one of the biggest trucking empires in the country. Brady served as chairman of the board and CEO of the companies until 1969, when he became honorary chairman of the board until the large trucking operations were sold. The Brady Moving & Storage Company was sold in 1968 to John Duvall and John Marrs, who currently run the business. The Brady Motorfrate Company was sold in 1973 to the Smith Transfer Company based in Staunton, Va. Brady is now the president and general manager of the Brady Realty Company, which owns all its trucking terminals.

Active in trucking operations, Brady was a member of state and national organizations, and in 1965, he was honored by the Iowa Motor Truck Association for 55 years in the transportation industry.

Brady and his first wife, Marguerite Hanrahan from Webster City, had two sons and a daughter—John J. Brady Jr., Robert, and Louise. After his wife Marguerite passed away in 1947, Brady married Gertrude Lamneck from New York City in 1956. She died here in 1969. Brady now lives at 1132 Summit Ave., Snell Place.

One of the early houses on Park Avenue in the Crawford-Armstrong addition to the city was this appealing two-story brick home built in 1928 by a Fort Dodge dentist, Dr. W. F. Remer.

The home at 1404 Park Avenue is now owned and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Schweiger and their family. Schweiger is the vice president responsible for mortgage loans at The State Bank. Their family includes Mike, Steve, Marggy, Mary Pat, and twins Judd and Joe.

Dr. Remer, who started his dental practice in Fort Dodge in 1919, bought the Park Avenue lot in 1927. A year later, he built the house, which was designed by architect Frank W. Griffith.

The current layout of the house features a living room with a fireplace, a dining room, a kitchen, and a half bath on the first floor; three bedrooms and a full bath on the second floor; a complete basement; and a porch on the west side of the house. The porch has now been updated into a den on the first floor. All the windows on the ground floor are made of plate glass, including the bay windows in the living room that look out over the Crawford Park area.

Dr. and Mrs. Remer lived in the house until 1941 when they sold it to David L. Rhodes. Later owners included F. J. Deaner and Dr. and Mrs. Marion B. Allen, who sold the house to the Schweigers in 1961.

Dr. Remer, originally from LeMars, went to school there and graduated from the University of Iowa Dental College in 1916. After practicing in Grand Mound for 2½ years, he moved to Fort Dodge in 1919 and bought the dental practice of Dr. Grant Bruner, located in the old First National Bank Building (now the Beh Building).

When the top six floors of the Carver Building were finished in 1922, Dr. Remer moved in and worked with the Fort Dodge Clinic for a while. Later, he had his own office in the building until he retired in 1966 and sold his practice to Dr. Donald Cassady. Throughout his years of practice here, Dr. Remer was helped in the office by his wife, Edna.

In 1968, Dr. Cassady, Dr. P. J. Leehey, and Dr. John Duro built the Dental Associates building at 1622 1st Ave. N. Dr. Craig E. Knouf is also currently part of the staff. Dr. Remer is only involved with the dentists as a consultant. He and Mrs. Remer now live at 1819 9th Ave. N.

The two-story wooden house at the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue North and Ninth Street (pictured above) was the first permanent home of the Fort Dodge YWCA.

Organized in 1909, the YWCA was initially based in a small building at First Avenue North and Seventh Street, home to the Flower Mission Club for Girls. This club was established in 1908 by Dr. Sara Kime and Mrs. J. J. Ryan to welcome girls moving to the community. The building served as the birthplace of the YWCA, as it was formed in the Flower Mission rooms.

The new YWCA expanded quickly, and there was a need for better housing. It was discovered that the large A. S. R. Reynolds house at the northwest corner of First Avenue North and Ninth Street was up for sale. The property included an eight-room house and a lot that had a 75-foot frontage on First Avenue and 140 feet on Ninth Street.

The house was bought for $10,000, and the YWCA took ownership in October 1909. Two years later, they bought property just west of the Reynolds house. The YWCA held a lot of activities in the new space and opened a cafeteria in 1910—the first one in the city.

As the organization grew, they realized that the house was no longer suitable for YWCA programs, so they started a campaign to raise money for a new building. The campaign was successful, and the house was sold for $10,000 to E. O. Fitz, the manager of the Farmers Lumber Company. It was then relocated to its current address at 327 N. 9th St. Fitz lived in the home for a while, and then it was sold, changing hands several times over the years. It is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hubert E. McMahon, who live at 1129 S. 17th St. The house has two apartments that are rented out.

After selling the house, the YWCA temporarily operated from the Tobin College building at First Avenue North and Seventh Street. The current three-story brick YWCA building was then constructed at First Avenue North and Ninth Street, costing $72,000 for both the building and furnishings. The building was dedicated in 1914. When it was finished, the building included 36 rooms for permanent and temporary guests, clubrooms, and a gym. For many years, the YWCA also ran a cafeteria in the new building.

A Fort Dodge lawyer, who practiced here for several years and later became a federal judge in Minnesota, built this house on North Seventeenth Street in 1915. His name was Matthew M. Joyce, and he lived here from 1910 until 1918. After that, he moved to Minneapolis, where he worked as the attorney for the M. & St. L. Railroad for 14 years before he was appointed as a judge.

The two-story house with brown siding and white trim is located at 417 N. 17th St. It has changed hands several times and is currently owned by Edwin K. Bradley, who bought it in 1968. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley and their sons, Mike, Mark, and Matthew, now live in the house, which has the following layout: first floor—entryway, living room, dining room, kitchen, half bath, solarium, and a screened-in brick porch; second floor—four bedrooms, a sun porch, and two bathrooms. There is also an attic study. Bradley is the lab supervisor at Trinity East Hospital and the assistant lab supervisor at Trinity West.

Joyce was born in Emmetsburg in 1877. After finishing elementary and high school, he enrolled at the University of Michigan and graduated from law school in 1899. He started practicing law in Missoula, Montana, with Edward C. Mulroney, who was originally from Fort Dodge. In 1910, he moved to Fort Dodge and lived at several locations before building a home on North Seventeenth Street.

During his time in Fort Dodge, Joyce practiced law with B. J. Price and B. B. Burnquist for eight years before moving to Minneapolis to take the legal position with the M. & St. L. In 1932, President Herbert Hoover appointed Joyce as a judge of the Circuit Court of Appeals. After 17 years on the bench, he retired in 1949. He passed away in Minneapolis in 1956 at the age of 79. Mrs. Joyce died in 1962. Joyce was a nephew of M. F. Healy, T. D. Healy, and Robert Healy, who were well-known attorneys in Fort Dodge.

On moving to Minneapolis, Joyce sold the home on North Seventeenth Street to W. C. Woodward of the Fort Dodge Grocery Company. Later, it was owned by Dr. and Mrs. E. F. Beeh, Mr. and Mrs. B. J. Price, Chris Kulild, Eugene Leachman, Robert L. Mitchell, and Ralph Humphreys.

This Fifth Avenue North home was built in 1893 by Carl C. Haugen, a longtime businessman in Fort Dodge. Located at 1249 5th Ave. N., the house has been renovated in recent years and now features first and second-floor apartments. The current owners are Mr. and Mrs. Edward N. Richardson, 309 N. 18th St., who rent out the apartments.

The house has white asphalt shingle siding and a brown roof. Access to the upstairs apartment is through a private enclosed staircase.

Originally, the house had a living room, parlor, dining room, kitchen, and pantry on the first floor; four bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. When the house was remodeled, the first floor was turned into a one-bedroom apartment with a bathroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen. The upstairs has a two-bedroom apartment with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom.

Carl C. Haugen arrived in Iowa from his home country of Norway in 1884, initially settling in Bode before relocating to Fort Dodge in 1886, where he started working as a barber. After a few years, he partnered with D. A. Noah to run a large six-chair barber shop located in the basement of the original First National Bank at Central Avenue and Sixth Street.

When the First National Bank Building was built at Central Avenue and Seventh Street in 1908, Haugen opened a new six-chair barbershop in the basement of the building. He stayed in the barbering business until 1945 when he retired and sold the shop. His brother, Martin C. Haugen, worked with him in the barbershop until 1939.

Following his marriage in 1893 to Hanna Fredrickson, Mr. and Mrs. Haugen built their home at 1249 5th Ave. N.—one of the few houses in that part of the city at the time. The streets weren’t paved, and the walkways were made of wood. Haugen made two trips back to Norway—in 1891 and in 1900. He was one of the founders of St. Olaf Lutheran Church here and served as the secretary of the congregation for 50 years. The house was sold in 1965 when Mrs. Haugen moved to Friendship Haven.

Mr. and Mrs. Haugen were the parents of four children: a daughter, Magna, who passed away in infancy, and three sons, Helge H. Haugen, Einar F. Haugen, and Karl F. Haugen, the author of this series about Fort Dodge homes. Mr. Haugen passed away in 1947 at the age of 80. Mrs. Haugen died on December 23, 1974. If she had lived until February 3, 1975, she would have been 103 years old.

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