NEIGHBORING NEWS.--Chaffee, of the Ida Pioneer, ran sixteen miles from a book agent, whom he mistook for one of the Northfield robbers.
ROBBERS IN SAC COUNTY.--Last Wednesday the news came to town that the two remaining Northfield robbers, supposed to be the James Brothers, passed through our county the week before on their way to Missouri. As soon as it was known that they were probably well out of the county and State, the warlike spirit of our people rose to fever hight [sic], and a small party immediately started west to capture them. When they got as far as Indian Creek they found it too high to cross, and so they marched right back to town.
Some men on horseback were seen loitering near cattle herds on Indian creek, probably watching a chance to run off the stock.
NOTICE.--All persons are hereby warned against setting out fire on the prairie and allowing it to escape from their control, between the first day of September, 1876, and the first day of May, 1877. Any one putting out such fires will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Section 3,890 of the LAWS of Iowa provides that "any person setting out fire and allowing it to escape shall upon conviction be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than 30 days, or by fine not exceeding $100."
This law will be strictly enforced against any and all offenders. By order of
the
FARMERS' SOCIETY OF SAC CO.
The Maple River Railroad project, conceived some time since, has taken definite shape and the work of grading the line will be commenced immediately. A few days since Horace Williams, esq., President of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, telegraphed from the east to have the surveys put in shape, since which time a part of the line has been located and a few miles of grading let.
The new road will start from a point about six miles west of Carroll, on the line of the Northwestern in Carroll county, thence run in a northwesterly course to Ida, in Ida county, passing through the western portion of Carroll county, the northern portion of Crawford county, the southern portion of Sac county, and through nearly the center of Ida county. Its probable line thence will be down the Maple River, through the south corner of Woodbury county, and so on down into the northern portion of Monona county. A very natural route has been found, and it is understood that there will be no grades on the line to exceed thirty or fourty [sic] feet per mile. The company expect to complete the road in time to carry from the Maple Valley the crops of 1877.
The apparent object in the construction of this line of road is to afford access to lands owned along the Maple river by the Iowa Railroad Land Company. Its completion will certainly bring into near market the extensive tracts of unimproved land lying between the Chicago & Northwestern and Illinois Central roads, which are now altogether too far from railroad facilities to render their cultivation profitable.
The builders of this line of road do not, it is understood, expect to realize any returns from their investment for some time after its completion, other than the interest on the bonds to be issued in part payment for its construction. But with the completion will of course come settlement and rapid immigration to points along the line, and in a very short time--a few years at most--the road will probably have all the business it can well handle.
A DANCE at the court house Tuesday next.
AT WORK.--The contractor on the Maple Valley Railroad advertises for 500 men to work at grading.
GO FOR THEM.--A prairie fire in Sac township last week burned some grain on J. B. Underwood's farm. An Irishman west of Wall Lake [Black Hawk Lake] was suspected of setting it out.
The dead grass strews the prairie road,
And withered are the pale white flowers
The frost has stiffened the fly and toad,
The dry leaves fall in rustling showers.
RAILROAD.--From the best information we can gain, we judge the Maple Valley road will follow the lower route through our county. It would accommodate a greater portion of our county if the northern route could be taken. It will pass near Mr. Wheeler's lower farm.
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The Iowa Railroad Land Co. have raised the prices on their lands $4 or $5 on the acre. This is a new thing and was done on the strength of our railroad prospects. The land that has heretofore been selling at from $4 to $7 per acre is now held at from $8 to $12 per acre.--Ida Pioneer.
CAPTURED.--The notorious James Brothers, of Missouri, on their way from Northfield, Minn., passed through Sac county, stopping over night at Mr. Granley's, in the west part of the county. One of them had a sore knee, and spent fifteen minutes in cursing it when he rose in the morning. This one, Frank James, has just been captured in Missouri by Pinkerton's detectives, and Jesse is in close quarters.
(transcribed by B. Ekse from microfilm, October, 2003)
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