On June 4, 1908, a special 15 car merchants train from Cedar Rapids spent half an hour in Jewell while the merchants shook hands with Jewell business men.   The 20 piece traveling band entertained local folks at the depot and at the corner of King and Main.

<------- This Record News article was published June 4, 1908. 

     There were about eighty people in the company, including a band of twenty pieces.   The latter organization furnished some excellent music on the street corner.   Their train was a fine one, including seven coaches, buffet and baggage car, diner, day coach, three sleepers and a superintendants private car.   The visitors called on the local business men during their short stay here, not soliciting business but merely informing the business men of the fact that Cedar Rapids is on the map, commercially.
 

     The men of Jewell, were they to do a little checking up on themselves, would not be able to escape the conclusion that they are pretty good citizens, pretty loyal supporters of their home town.   The're a modest lot, the folks here in Jewell, but they can't dodge the charge.   The evidence is too conclusive.   The bunch sticks by the home town.   They come across every time they see a chance to give Jewell a good boost.   They give good support to the town ball team.   They give loyal support to the churches and schools of the town and are putting them out in front.   Jewell business men are putting up the cost of developing and maintaining a splendid town band and they don't mumur about the expense.   Municipal improvements are moving along year by year at a rate that is putting Jewell on the map as a real live, enterprising town and Jewell folks are boosters for it.   Every time something is to be done to provide a day of entertainment for the patrons of Jewell, the business men of the town came forward gladly and liberally.   The recent July Fouth celebration was a good instance of it.   Nearly to a man the business men of Jewell and other men as well pulled their coats off, jumped into the harness, gave days of work and crontributed liberally of their cash to make it a big day.   There were mighty few who could be called "slackers".  The Boy Scouts project is up now.   There is $1,500 to be raised to buy the land a part of which is to be used for the Scout home and the balance of which is to be held for other public uses in the future.   Mark the prediction -- there won't be much trouble in raising the money.   Jewell people don't hesitate long when it comes to helping along any good thing for Jewell.   That's the story all along the line.   Our business men here in Jewell are making a town here; the citizens of this town are responding to every call.

     There's a moral to all of this.

     How much is contributed to these things that make for the betterment of Jewell by the business men of Webster City or of Fort Dodge or of Des Moines?   How much is contributed by Montgomery Ward or Sears Roebuck?   How much is contributed by mail order furniture dealers, or mail order printing concerns, or mail order dealers in lumber and building materials, or mail order dealers in clothing or ladies' cloaks and suits, or any other mail order or out of town concerns?

      Not one red cent!

      How much will these vultures contribute towards the Boy Scout building project?

      Not a penny!

      How much do these out of town concerns contribute to the support of our town band, or our town ball team, or our chautauqua, or our celebration, or to our schools and churches, or to our municipal improvements?

      Not a single red copper!

     The business men of Jewell bear the big burden of the expense of making Jewell a better town in which to live, the business men aided by a few other men who, like them, have a big place in their hearts for anything and everything that boosts for the home town.

     The people of Jewell profit by what the business men do to make Jewell a better town.   They have a better town in which to live, better schools to which to send their children, better churches at which to worship, better surroundings and better opportunities for their families.   Their property advances in value as the town is built up.

       The people in the country surrounding Jewell profit as the business men of the town make Jewell a bigger and better town.   They get better markets, they get better trading service, they get a town that offers them more in business, and general community respects.   Their farms are worth more by reason of being located near a better town.

     The business men of Jewell are not alone in the work of building a bigger and better Jewell, but they do a big part of it.

     And the business men who give such loyal support to Jewell deserve an equally loyal support from the people of this community to profit by it.
 

     The man whom it is supposed is the slayer of Frank Beard, the young man recently shot and killed by tramps at DeWitt, was captured by the city marshal at Jewell Junction Friday morning.   The marshal of couse received the printed description of the men who were wanted for the terrible murder and had placed it back in his pocket a day or so ago, but he has a good memory.   A reward of $1,000 is enough to make any man keep his eyes open.   That morning the officer was on his beat between the east end of the town and the depot.   The whistle of the train attracted his attention, and he wandered to the depot.   It was his business to look at every new comer that reached Jewell Junction, and when he saw a man jump from a box car he sized him up.   "It may be a mistake" he thought, "but that fellow looks mightily to me like the telegram describes."   He took the little yellow paper out of his pocket again and looked at it.   "By cracky," he said aloud, "That's the fellow."   He approached him and told him to come with him.   Jewell was hardly awake then, but a desperate encounter ensued between the men.   Almost hand to hand they fought.   Four times the sharp crack of the revolver in the hands of the murderer rang out, but each time he missed his aim, and five times Marshal Lingle answered the shots with his trusted weapon.   The battle between the men raged so fiercely that the attention of the train men was centered upon them.   The engineer placed his hand to the whistle cord and a steady whistle followed that brought out half the town.   Everyone rushed to the scene.   They saw the predicament the marshal was in and closed in on the murderer.   He was captured and is now in the Jewell jail.   His description that is familiar to every office in Iowa, is that of a man short and heavy set, dark complexion, wearing a dark brown suit with a light crash had.   He had on a pair of broad toed shoes.
 

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Impressions of Stay in Jewell

Relief Editor Write of Jewell as He Sees it During Short Stay

- Sees Many Good Features -
(By Burt Kroesen)

     The stranger in town will see the things that you see, but he is liable to see them from a different point of view.   For one thing you have seen the same thing so often that its beauty, its newness, its usefulness or its ungainlyness, uselessness or age do not impress you.   During our two weeks stay in Jewell we have noticed some things -- the same things that you have noticed so many times, but we are going to take the liberty of telling just how these things impressed us.

     One of the first things that we noticed was the water fountain for horses and live stock on Main Street.   This may seem like a funny thing to notice, but in our home town this gave way to the modern idea of having nothing to take its place along with the hitching posts and the free tobacco box several years ago.   Of couse, the farmers objected to these progressive steps, as farmers sometimes do, but they very soon forgot the hitching posts and tobacco box.   They bought Fords and could afford cigars, as farmers can you know.   But -- they never forgot the old horse water trough and mourn it to this day.   They cannot haul grain and hogs in the Ford, nor can they always get the Baby Lincoln through the mud to town, so old "Dobin" is still a frequent visitor and the beast it is said regrets the fact that the town is dry, as both man and beast have to wait until they get home for a drink.   However, be that as it may, we noticed the watering place, but have not as yet seen a horse drinking from its cool depths, which leads one to question whether it is really needed or not, although it makes a nice reminder of olden times fast fading into the past.

     Another thing came to our mind was the fact that the people of Jewell are wise in supporting their band.   A band is a good advertisement for the town.   The town that takes all and gives nothing to its patrons in return does not earn a reputation for progressiveness.   Jewell merchants however, support a band.   It is a good band, it gives the patrons of the town a fine evenings entertainment one night each week, it adds to the culture of the community, sets an example for the young and brings out the ambitions of the musically inclined.   And it is a living advertisement for the city.

     A two weeks stay in the city has shown us that the business houses are for the most part progressive, up-to-date and sound financially.   Land speculation, in other words passed them by or they passed up the land speculation.   Until one has been through.  It the curse left in the wake of a land boom is hard to visualize.   To say the least it is appropriate to use the words of General Sherman in regard to war.   Lucky indeed is the town whose merchants kept out of it.

     Another problem that every town has to deal with is that of good roads leading into the city and good streets within the corporation.  The counties under our system of using auto license money in finance the roads are fast building good roads into towns, and Jewell we see is no exception in this instance.   In town the traffic demands streets that are hard enough to hold up the present auto and truck traffic, and streets that will be free from mud during rainy season.   Present day traffic demands all the year service.   Paving puts a burden in overhead in the business district that makes it hard to compete with neighboring trading posts, and raises rents and curtails income in residence properties, in such a way that it is hard for the small town to finance.   Jewell has apparently sovled the problem with its oiled streets.   It must be practical and of low upkeep cost as the people who use it and the people to pay for it are both satisfied.

     Of couse, we couldn't help but notice that Jewell was a school town.   With what looks to be a commodious public school building and a fine little college the town attracts the young folks in search of an education from over a wide territory.   We understand the public school is crowded and the college is growing.

     We attended a meeting of the Community Club Monday night.   The people of a town where they keep up a club do not realize what a good thing that an organization is.   About twety members attended Monday night when there should have been sixty.   Every business man, from peanut vendor to the big interests of the locality should be in the "boosters" club -- and they should work at it.   However, in spite of the fact that a town without a Community Club is working at a disadvantage, it seems hard work to keep one going in most towns, and Jewell is to be congratulated that this one is up and coming.

     The market facilities of the town are good, and they must have fallen into good hands as the record of shipments from Jewell are above the average from towns of this size.   The good service to be had on the Northwestern may in part be responsible for this.   And then too, the fact that this is a junction point may be responsible for many of the more progressive (ideas?) of your city.   The brightest minds of the country are coming and going and the exchange of ideas cannot help but make for a better business community.

     And as the  preachers say, lastly, we believe that Jewell has a better newspaper in the Record than they are entitled to, judging by the support given it.   A 16 page paper in a town of 1200 is going some.   And it should be everybody's business to help keep her going on high all the time.   Your newspaper is the representative of your town.   If you are withholding news from the paper you keep the paper from representing you.   If you are not advertising, the newspaper is not representing you.   The stranger who picks up the Record doesn't know you are here.   The same applies to the newspaper that applies to the Community Club.   25 per cent of the business men give 75 per cent of the support required by both the newspaper and the club.  The same condition exists in other towns and so far there has been no suggestion made whereby the work of boosting a town can be equally divided and at the same time have the town well boosted.

     We have been to church, to (take?) to the show, we have looked the town over and believe we have seen everything but the Ku Klux Klan, and if you have any of those birds they are keeping dark.   To our mind Jewell is up to the standard as a community of 1200 busy souls.