From Page 68 - Jewell Centennial Book - rememberances of Jewell in 1931 by Mrs. Morisini F. Anderson

      It was back in the year 1870, a decade before there even was a town of Jewell, that Mrs. Anderson's family came to this community, coming here from Ohio.   They first located on what is now known as the Brinton farm, just west of the Skunk River over west of Ellsworth.   About four or five years later they moved to the farm where Anton Peterson and family now live, 1 mile east and a half mile south of town.   Wm. Anderson, who later became her husband, came in the year 1873, his first farm being the place still owned by members of the Anderson family northeast of Jewell.   Mr. and Mrs. Anderson in succeeding years had so large a part in the growth of this community that The Record cannot forbear to include a brief reference to their history before proceeding to recount some of the history of which Mrs. Anderson told.

      It was in the year 1875 that Mr. and Mrs. Anderson were married; scores of their friends were very happy a little over five years ago to join with them both in celebrating the golden anniversary of their marriage.   In 1884, Mr. Anderson was elected county auditor of Hamilton County and with his wife and four young children moved to Webster City, serving in that office four years.   He then became county superintendent of schools serving another four years, until 1892.   The family then moved back to Jewell, living then on what later was the Anderson home farm where their son, Dr. C. W. Anderson, and family now live.   Five years later, in 1897 they moved again to Webster City, and Mr. Anderson started upon his career as a banker as an employee in the First National bank of Webster City.   In the spring of 1900 the family returned to Jewell, returning to the farm while Mr. Anderson then first became engaged also in the banking business in Jewell.   The family has continued to live here ever since and Mr. Anderson retained connection with the banking business of this community until his death, although in his later years not and active officer of the bank.

     As Mrs. Anderson recalls, it was in the summer of the year 1880 that the C. & N. W. Railway company built their line in from the east.   During the late fall and winter of that year a few freight trains were run over the line to Webster City until the spring thaws and rains came early in 1881 when it for a time became impossible to operate the trains.   The first passenger train over the line was run early in April of the year 1881.   It was on the 5th day of April 1881, that the second passenger train was operated, and two of the passengers on that train jouneyed on it to the town of Webster City; there they became Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Bonner.   They and their family became closely linked with the future life of this community.   Mrs. Bonner and several of her children still residing in and near Jewell.

     In those days there was also, a narrow gauge road, running from Des Moines to the old town of Callanan, 2 miles east and a ways south of the present location of Jewell.    The Northwestern started up the town of Ellsworth, locating a depot and an elevator there.   And in the winter of 1881, the Northwestern bought out the old narrow gauge road and built in its line from the south to Jewell.    That spoke the doom of the old town of Callanan, the narrow gauge railroad being abandoned.   Some of the people of Callanan moved to the new town of Ellsworth; others moved to the other new town of Jewell.   It was told in those days that the railroad offered free lots and moved the buildings of those who moved from Callanan to Jewell.

     W. B. Richards, who had been a drygoods merchant at Callanan, moved to Ellsworth and went into business there.   "Bill" Howard established elevators in Jewell, Stanhope and Kamrar.   Mrs. Anderson recalls, now almost with a shudder, how in those early days he sent his young son, a boy but 15 or 16 years old, to Kamrar and Stanhope with cash money to pay off is emplyees in those towns.   It was, recalls Mrs. Anderson, Austin Alexander, the grandfather of our present County Attorney, who built Mr. Howard's elevator in Jewell.   The Alexander family then lived where Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Smith now reside.

     The house where Floyd Davis and family now live was one of the first - perhaps the very first, bouse located in Jewell south of the tracks.   "Tip" Hayte, one of Callanan's residents, moved that house from Callanan to Jewell and located it on the corner where the Standard Oil station is now presided over by the same Floyd Davis who lives in that original old house - though now decidedly remodeled.

     At the other end of the business street of Jewell today stands the Dutton Hotel over whose destiny Charley Sidenstucker has so long presided.   That hotel, too, is a reminince of the early days.   It stands on the site where was located the original hotel building on this side of the tracks, a frame hotel structure that Dick Stevens moved to Jewell from Callanan in the winter of 1880.

     It those days it had to be winter when such things as moving houses and hotels was done; there were nothing then that today would be referred to as roads, drainage was not yet even a dream of the future, and the country was dotted with sloughs, ponds and swamps that made it utterly  impossible to do much "house moving" except when frozen over in winter time.

     In the spring of 1884, when the Anderson family first moved to Webster City, Mrs. Anderson recalls an incident that illustrates the road conditions then existing hereabouts:
     When the railroad was first built, it was planned to open a wagon road into Jewell from the east approximately on the section line, bordering the railway tracks.   However, there was so much low wet land there that it was found that a rather high grade would have to be built.   And horses were so badly frightened by passing trains that it was felt that it would be too dangerous to have a road with so high a grade so near the railroad tracks.   Accordingly, several of the enterprising and public spirited businessmen purchased a narrow strip of land and opened the road into town from the east on the quarter section line, where the highway still is located.

     When Mr. Anderson became county auditor the first of the year in 1884, he at once went to Webster City to take over his duties.   A couple of months later Mrs. Anderson and her four young children went to Webster City.   Her father brought them to town in a wagon, to take the train from Jewell to Webster City.   But the road was impossible because of the high water in the creek east of town, the outlet of Mud Lake, then really a lake.   There were no fences then.   Mr. Knox drove the team and wagon across the fields to the point east of town where the southbound railway tracks branches off, there unhitched his team, tied them to the wagon, and with Mrs. Anderson and the children walked into town on the railroad tracks.   At the bridge over the creek, the water was up to the rails and he carried the children over.

     Another of the first settlers of Jewell when Mrs. Anderson recalls was Mr. Cooper, Jewell's first postmaster.   Mr. Cooper had been the postmaster of Callanan.   When Callanan became extinct, Postmaster Cooper merely transferred his job to Jewell.   His honored wife, who shared with him the labors and hardships of the early days, long remained in active business in Jewell, operating a millinery store here until comparatively recent years int eh building where Mr. Cooper conducted Jewell's first post office on the corner just acrosss the street north from the site of the present post office.   That building, with additions and alterations, still stands, a momument to the excellence in materials and workmanship of pioneer days; likewise a monument to "Herby" Hood's ingenuity in the line of building repairing.
 
 

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