A Trucker’s Christmas

Posted on Facebook on Christmas Eve 2021 by Robert “Bob” McDowell It was 3 days before Christmas 1986. I was an owner-operator for CRST in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and drove truck all over this country. I had picked up a load the day before in Florida and it was going to Minneapolis, MN after Christmas, so a perfect load to …

8000 Miles in a Model T

The adventures of two Edgewood young men on a 9-month road trip around the US in 1936. (Taken from an unidentified local newspaper clipping of the era. See endnote*) Saturday night two tired, happy, much be-whiskered young men drove into town with a remodeled, revamped, 1923 Model T Ford, and were greeted with genuine relief by their parents. These young …

Community Cleans Up State Park (1951)

Edgewood Merchants, Boy Scouts Pitch In For Annual Project By Ruth Wilson T-H State Editor (printed in Dubuque Telegraph Herald Sunday, June 24, 1951) Edgewood, Ia. — The crew dumping rocks into a huge washout along the road didn’t look much like Main street business and professional men, but a quick check showed that’s who they were. It was the …

Wife, 66, splits wood to stay healthy

By H.G. (MONK) TYSON T-H Staff Writer (Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, early 1949) Ed. note:  [Ada Mahala (Durfey) Thurn:  8 Aug 1882–11 Feb 1953]   [James Joseph “Joe” Thurn: 26 Nov 1873–22 Apr 1953] Littleport, Ia.— Breaking a colt to pull a corn plow is a man-sized job for most people, but to Ada Thurn it’s just part of the day’s work. …

Pioneer Life in Iowa–Clayton County circa 1845

A delightful description of early days in Iowa by a witty teller. The text is unedited from a 1936 reprinting of a speech given in 1876 in Strawberry Point, Iowa, regarding the early history of Cass Township and Strawberry Point, Clayton County, Iowa, and giving a sense of the experience of being an early settler in untamed territory. “In those …

Edgewood JayCees Appear on “Community Quiz” (1976)

The Edgewood JayCees competed in early 1976 on the KWWL-TV “Community Quiz” game show hosted by Jim Ganahl. The JayCees were represented by Jim Forkenbrock, Steve Brady, and Art Johnson. Enjoy this flashback to the Bicentennial year. Click here to view a video of the show.

One-Armed Town Marshal Is Busy Man at Edgewood (1952)

By Irene Gleason, Gazette Correspondent   (Printed in the Cedar Rapids Gazette 1952) EDGEWOOD —As town marshal here, Francis Schultz has many duties other than law enforcement.  He cuts the grass in the town park, shovels snow from sidewalks and crossings, digs ditches and puts in city water lines, drives the tractor and road grader, maintains the town pump, serves …

Edgewood Woman has 6 of 9 sons in Service (1942)

Des Moines Register, Sunday, March 1, 1942 EDGEWOOD, IA.—The war soon will roll closer to the home of Mrs. Eva Walters, 59, Edgewood widow, when the sixth of her nine sons will enter Uncle Sam’s armed services. The three others registered in the new draft Feb. 16. “But,” says Mrs. Walters, “I would not have it otherwise. Ev­ery one of …

A Tale from the Edgewood Cemetery

In December 1856, two young men, Charles Walker and Byron Packard, both from Allegany County, New York, were visiting relatives and friends in this vicinity when they lost their way on the prairie during a blizzard and froze to death. Unknowingly, they were within a short distance of a house. They were buried in the cemetery and a stone was …

Manchester & Oneida Railway

The M&O Railroad ran eight miles between Manchester and Oneida from 1901 to 1951, and billed itself as the shortest rail line in the country. There is a story of the history of the line in the June 21, 1981 Cedar Rapids Gazette. Oneida was a significant railroad junction of the era with two lines crossing there, the main line …