Bob Piper's Corner - October 5, 1986

October 5, 1986

George and myself took off at 2 p.m. minus Prior, as he went to Des Moines to see a show. My turn to use my car. We went southeast to the Chariton River bottom. Great blue herons were reported being seen there. We didn’t see them, but did see a white egret and a kingfisher. Saw a vulture right in front of us. A huge bird, it seemed to have trouble getting airborne. Probably overloaded with food. As much as we have traveled that area we found some new roads. Coming back, we came by where we had seen the egret. We saw it again in a backwater area arched over by trees. The bird had to come right up to us to get room to really spread its wings. Beautiful bird and beautiful view. Got back at 6 p.m.

Some people have questioned my source on the history of Ilion. This is good. All I have related I had first-hand knowledge, or got it in personal talks with Mrs. Henry Stroud who spent her life there with her husband. In the years I remember best she lived alone in the Dutch Palace. This was a rather modest brick house built by Mr. Mallory to entertain his gentlemen friends. Mrs. Mallory allowed no drinking at the castle. These were just social affairs. This house stood about 300 feet in front of where the Ken Crist home is now. The pond dam ran east and west. The house stood up the hill west of the dam some 300 feet, facing east. The carriage path led down from the castle past the Dutch Palace across the dam and then north. In my day there was never a bridge across the overflow, but you could see the remains of timbers that were part of the bridge. According to Mrs. Stroud, Mrs. Mallory drove a light rig on the trips back into the estate.

When I was thirteen or fourteen I would take an order out to Mrs. Stroud about once a week. I either took a Model T Ford truck or a team of mules, depending on the weather and roads. It took quite a bit of time, as there was no real road to her place. First, permission had to be obtained to go. One had to go through several cattle feeding lots. Gates had to be opened, cattle shooed away, and then over the pasture to her place. For some reason the house was about three feet off the ground. There was no basement, only a root cellar. The back porch was high as a loading dock. We could drive up and unload. Also the veranda on the front was high off the ground and open underneath.

The time finally came when Mrs. Stroud was too old to stay out there by herself. She was moved to a house on North 14th. The last year at the Dutch Palace she became a little fanciful. She told me and other delivery men not to get down on the ground as wolves lived under the house. Because of them she said she wasn’t afraid at night because they were pets and would protect her. I told my father about this and he said, “Did you get down?” I told him no and neither did the men who delivered there for us when I wasn’t around. Father never commented on the situation, but probably had some thoughts of his own.

One thing that spoiled the beauty of the area near the Dutch Palace was, after the Mallory family was gone, the new owners allowed the city to place one of the four sewer settling basins in Chariton almost out in front of the Dutch Palace. This deal, along with Mrs. Stroud’s age, brought about her departure from there. The house stayed empty and was torn down before the castle was. More about the Mallory Estate in later years next time. I never knew of a place that almost had great things happen to it, but all evaporated into thin air. More later on Ilion Acres.

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Some little-known things - 

The Rexall Drug Store building was the first building on the square to be properly located. It was built there by Dr. Gibbon, who also was a surveyor. He had come back from the Civil War and located here. The buildings on the east side of the square sat forward and back of this proper line he had established. As time went on, all came to this line, even before the buildings were brick. The Palmer Department Store that stood right where the hotel is now, used the same surveyed lines set out by Dr. Gibbon. I talked to Mrs. Joe Copeland many times about this. She was Dr. Gibbon’s daughter.

In one of my earlier letter I mentioned a hogshead. People have asked me what this was. It was a large loosely constructed barrel and would hold nearly one hundred twenty gallons. It was not watertight. Staves were held together by hickory hoops. One thing I remember being shipped in a hogshead was Calumet baking power. The cans were loose in there, packed in ground cork or sawdust. Everyone of these hogsheads of Calumet contained a prize. Some I remember were either an axe, a hammer, a spade, a set of aluminum store scoops, an iron kettle, a set of dishes, an oil lamp or a spice cabinet. Some of these things are still around here. The most important thing that ever came in
one of these hogsheads of Calumet was a calendar clock. This was in 1907, the year I was born. Of course I don’t remember this, but Father told me about it. It has hung in our store since that year and works fine if I would get up and wind it. I also have a sled that came as a prize.

Speaking of sleds, in the year 1915 there had been no snow and it was the nineteenth of December and none was forecast. Father happened to notice on the back of an invoice where it said if there was no snow you could return the sleds. The company didn’t want to, as it was sort of a joke. Father insisted and they took them back. Two days later we had a real deep snow.

Charlene Harrington called me about the little cemetery on the County Home ground. She has a book of all cemeteries in Lucas County. It lists some thirty people buried there, but only four stones are there. She says that near the turn of the century she had an uncle who was not mentally sound, and times being as they were, money was scarce so he was buried there. He lived at the County Home before his death. The names of all who are buried there are listed in the book. I will take another good look at the place later on. The names on the stones there are listed in the book she has. George and myself visited this cemetery again and found only the four stones as I mentioned before. We know from the record that others are buried there. It’s a coincidence that the three stones belonging to men are all listed with the name of John.

In 1917 my brother Joe and I were walking to town. We came across John Lyons laying a brick walk on the east of where the Christian parsonage stands now. We wanted to help. First, we hauled bricks from the Eikenberry elevator that had burned. That was where the Stone Motors is now. This was done by wheelbarrow. We placed the bricks and covered the cracks with sand. This settled in between the bricks. They stayed there sixty-five years until torn out. We got a dollar between us. People complained to Father about the low pay. He answered that when we were busy there we were not into something else.