Tom Beaty ~ Lucas County, Iowa
The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa
Saturday, March 1, l879
UP TO LUCAS. -- We spent a few hours up at Lucas on Tuesday for the first time in several months. We found the place pretty lively, and all the people in good spirits. Livestock was coming to the stock pens at an encouraging rate, and trade seemed active. Hon. E.S. THOMPSON, the miller, is buying corn and preparing to put in a sheller. He is also putting up a good crib.
GILMORE & MCCULLOUGH have arisen from the ashes of late fire, and resumed business, the Insurance Co. made them whole again.
J.C. BAKER is preparing to get off to Chicago next week to lay in his spring stock of new goods.
JOHNNY CARROL is running a butcher shop and feeding the people on the best of meat at fair prices.
ALF HOOD is getting so fat that he can't run himself, so he runs the stock yard scales.
We went over to the new Coal Co.'s shaft between Lucas and Cleveland, and found a lot of industrious determined miners at work, going down for the black diamonds. TOM FRANCIS, though not exactly the boss of the job, has a good deal to do as well as to say about it. They were down thirty-five feet, and no water to bother them much. The shaft is eight feet square. They expect to strike coal about May lst., and if they don't, will probably go on till they strike coal, h--ard pan or China. We think they will. CLARK BAKER is one of the directors, but don't seem to comprehend the technical terms of mining very readily. When FRANCIS told him they were getting ready to put in the gin, he very promptly replied, speaking officially, that he would prefer beer, as he thought it would be cheaper and easier obtained. Being corrected by an indignant miner, and informed that the gin was simply a part of the hoisting machinery, he subsided with the remark that it was a gin mill. The company seem to have ample resources for carrying on the work so far as money and muscle is concerned, and a genial tempered man for president, MR. W.T. RAMSEY. All are happy and hopeful, and the people of Lucas feel great confidence to the enterprise. Corner lots are advancing in Lucas as a consequence.
As the railroad Co. will permit none but tramps to travel on all trains, we were forced to wait till late in the evening before we could get to return home on a freight train, so we stepped in and greeted TOM BEATY, who still smiles cheerfully over his bar when an editor inquires if he has got any real good fresh water in the house. TOM runs a saloon and don't sell water. We couldn't stay forever with Lucas, so we left it for its own good, but will return in the capacity of a missionary, as we learn that it has more saloons than hotels, besides one or two drug stores.
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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
March 29, 2004
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