This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: farwellwalter Surnames: Bryan, Harvey, Jacobs, Liggett Classification: lookup Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.iowa.counties.fremont/7564/mb.ashx Message Board Post: THE FREMONT COUNTY HERALD. November 15, 1900. "FROM SAMUEL JACOBS". -- The Portland Oregonian of Nov. 4th has an article in favor of coining half cent pieces. The Oregonian is a republican paper and comes out in favor of the half cent coin in its Sunday issue. I do not suppose it intends this small coin for church collections. It opposed Bryan's silver policy very strongly. I think there were some half cent pieces coined sixty or seventy years ago. I recollect when in Pennsylvania, the small silver coins were six and a fourth cents, and twelve and a half cents -- called "fips" or five penny bits, and "levies," or eleven penny bits, or York shillings. The Americans had not quite forgotten the British and Colonial currency. The Kansas City - St. Joseph & Council Blulffs, the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and other railroads are now consolidated with and made part and parcel of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad company, which has heretofore operated them as leased lines. It is thought that the general offices for the Missouri lines will remain in this city. When I first came to Iowa, in 1846, we had but little use for Chicago. Our mails and visitors came up the Mississippi river. Keokuk, then in the Half-breed tract, was called the "gate city." Iowa people took St. Louis and Louisville newspapers. Some whigs took the bright Louisville Journal, edited by Prentice. At a later period the news in the spring at Council Bluffs, that there was a steamboat up, was joyfully and loudly proclaimed. The construction of the railroad has changed all this, as well as wiped out the Western Stage company. The general offices for the Missouri lines of the Burlington system will, it is said, remain in this city. The general headquarters for that great system are in Chicago. When any of my Fremont county friends come to this city I hope they will come to see us. SIGNED: Samuel Jacobs, 1501 Jule St., St. Joseph, MO. N.B.: This has to be one of the most intelligent letters I have ever seen in the Sidney papers. I can only wish I knew how the response to it should go. I think it refers to so many things that a Fremont county genealogist should be up on, that it becomes mind boggling! FIRST: The Riverton amphitheater is on the list of Historic Places because of "Coin Harvey". Harvey was concerned with the issues taken up in Jacob's first paragraph above. One of Riverton's first newspapers dating circa 1880 had this issue as its prime focus (I have forgotten the newspaper's name.) And William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech was made in 1896. In 1908, John Worth Kern, a cousin of the older Liggett's in Fremont county, was Bryan's running mate in his bid for the presidency of the United States....Any encompassing family history of an ancestor living in Fremont county at the time should at least mention this era in county history. SECOND: The C.,B. and Q. R. R.: Thanks to this railroad, many Fremont countians emigrated further west simply by loading their stuff on a C.B. & Q. railroad car while the family took passage in the passenger car! They had had enough of those out-of-fashion covered wagons. Jacobs also realizes that Chicago by l900 had caused Iowa's "Gate City" to lose its place in the scheme of things. At Council Bluffs, the Missouri river steamboat had become passe, thanks to the railroads (but only long after out-gunning the once powerful Western State Coach Company). The stage coach was done for in Fremont county when Bartlett became Fremont county's first railroad station in 1867. There had been only one stage coach hold up along the South Tier during all of that time; but when that public conveyance moved further West -- well, who hasn't seen many of those movies? THIRD: Jacobs was deluded when thinking Chicago would spare St. Joseph when it was taking over unsurpassed control of the railroad systems in the northern part of the United States. Not long ago, National Public Radio said there was so many crossings of streets and railroad tracks in Chicago that tie-ups had compleltely exasperated the patience of car drivers who had to wait so very long to cross tracks -- too many of which had never been elevated--even in the middle of town.--W.F. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.