And somehow or other there were other supplies of the same class of goods in town. We had no city marshal, and as the afternoon wore away the crowd became more uproarious and disorderly. The Fourth of July marshal undertook at one time to stop a row, but he speedily abandoned the job and got himself out of sight, nor by the way, was he ever seen here subsequently, as he evacuated the town, with all his belongings, before daylight the next morning. It subsequently transpired that he had collected about $125 of the funds subscribed by the citizens, having been appointed 'deputy collector' by the aforesaid chairman of the committee of arrangements, who was so busy running a ten-cent swing on the Fourth, and on making it on previous days, that he had no time to attend to this part, or any other part of the business.

"Luckily, no damage was done, except a few windows broken and a few heads slightly cracked, all the casualties being among those engaged in having the fun. The citizens generally got off the streets and most of them went home and staid with their families and let the tough crowd have it out. Of course, there were a lot of unpaid bills left; the printers were left and all the merchants who had furnished anything. In fact, we do not recollect whether or not any attempt was made to pay outstanding bills, as the bulk of the money had disappeared with the marshal. Of course, the chairman of the committee made no report; how could he with the other fellow gone? But it was a long time before you could mention that Fourth of July celebration in this town without the man addressed would either swear or laugh, according as he had been personally interested in the occasion."

burlington, cedar rapids & northern

In 1881, the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern railroad reached Franklin county, entering its territory on section 34, Lee township. Bearing in a northwesterly direction, the road passes through Oakland township and makes its exit on section 31, Morgan township. On this road there are two stations in Franklin county—Dows and Popejoy. This road is now a part of the Rock Island system.

the chicago great western

The Iowa & Pacific Railroad Company was organized in 1871 and made a survey of a line to run between Dubuque and the Da

kotas. Considerable grading had been accomplished up to 1876, when the company failed. The Dubuque & Dakota Railroad Company was then organized and finished the work from Waverly to Hampton. Eventually the road was completed, is now under the control and management of the Chicago Great Western and is known by that name.

the des moines, iowa falls & northern

This road made its entrance into Hampton August 21, 1907. The first train carrying passengers from the south arrived in Hampton Monday, February 4, 1908. It became popularly known as the Des Moines short line. In the summer of 1908 the road was sold to the St. Paul & Des Moines Railroad Company. The road is a popular one with the people of Hampton, giving them direct transit to the state capital on the south and St. Paul on the north.

CHAPTER XVII

DRAINAGE DITCH DISTRICTS-A LATTER DAY IMPROVEMENT WORTH MILLIONS TO LOCAL FARMS-LARGE TRACTS OF LAND RECLAIMED BY BIG DITCHES-B. H. MALLORY, MEMBER FRANKLIN COUNTY BAR, TELLS THE STORY.

I shall discuss the subject of drainage solely as it applies to the reclamation in whole or in part of lands too wet for food-producing purposes. Man has ever been prone to think he could improve upon the works of the Almighty in creating the world and especially has this been true with the relation to the distribution of water over its surface and in many instances the hand of man has supplemented the hand of God to man's profit and God's glory. Many of us are apt to think that the draining of certain lands and the irrigating of others is the result of modern conditions and demands, but the facts are that the most gigantic systems of irrigation were in operation in Egypt and in Asia before the dawn of the Christian era and for some unknown reason portions of Asia that were very fruitful in those early days are now practically desert wastes on account of the abandonment of the irrigation systems. However, my purpose is to treat of reclamation from the standpoint of drainage alone and to apply the same to the results obtained in this county under the provisions of law in force in this state. Surface water has always been regarded as a common enemy both by man and by the common law, but man with his accustomed proneness to avoid the enemy, unless by a necessity forced to meet him, has always dodged this surface water enemy as long as he could obtain dry lands suitable for agricultural purposes at a moderate price. In fact large areas of land in the State of Iowa were so unattractive on account of their wetness that individuals would neither buy nor homestead them and the United States Government gave large tracts of this class of land to the State of Iowa under swamp land acts to be used by the state for internal improvements. However, our increased and increasing population has brought us face to face with the problem

of producing food enough to care for our own people and as a result there is a continual effort to bring new and heretofore unproductive lands under cultivation. Starting with the common law provision that surface water was a common enemy and that the lower or servient estate was in duty bound to receive such surface water as naturally flowed onto it from the upper or dominant estate, we have gradually, through constitutional provisions, statutory enactments and judge-made laws, developed our present system of drainage laws, by which every piece of land in the State of Iowa may receive relief by proper application of existing laws. Until the present statutory enactments our courts generally held that the dominant estate could not throw water onto the servient estate in a manner different than it flowed thereon naturally. This practically precluded the installing of tile systems outletting upon the lower holders, and in order to obtain relief the owner of wet land must make some kind of an arrangement with the lower holders for a co-operative system or, as more usually resulted, he was obliged to carry the water from his lands across the lower holder at a large expense. Our Legislature, recognizing the public necessity of bringing all the lands within the state under cultivation, enacted a law by which a majority of the land holders in a given area might petition the board of supervisors to establish a drainage district and place the burden of the improvement therein upon all the land in the district according to the benefits derived. It was soon found that it was impossible in many instances to get a majority of the land holders to join in a petition of this character and the law was subsequently amended so that any one land holder might petition the board for the establishment of a drainage district. Our law has been constantly amended and developed as earlier stated by constitutional amendment, legislative enactments and judicial decisions until at the present time the law in substance is:

That any land holder having land too wet for cultivation may file a petition with the board of supervisors setting out such fact together with a list of the land of other land holders that would be benefited by a drainage improvement, at the same time filing bond to pay the preliminary expenses in case the system is not established. This gives the board of supervisors jurisdiction to take charge of the matter. They place the petition in the hands of a competent engineer who makes a report upon the same and, if in his judgment it is feasible. to drain the said land, he prepares plans and specifications, which he submits to the board of supervisors, and if approved by them, a

hearing is had and the district usually established. Then follows a letting of the work by advisement and an assessment of the land in the district to pay the costs thereof. Development of this law into its present condition has involved all manner of litigation, but the Supreme court has taken the broad view that public necessity demanded the reclamation of these lands and they have gone to great length to sustain the law wherever it were possible to do so.

Franklin county, on account of its geological formation rather than on account of its elevations, in its natural state, contained a very large percentage of wet land. Practically speaking, the eastern half of the county is surfaced with what is known as Iowa drift and the western half with Wisconsin drift and although the elevations of the western half of the county are higher than those of the eastern half, so far as appearances are concerned, the reverse seems to be true as the eastern half was naturally well drained while the western half remained in a very wet condition. With the exception of a small area which drains to the south and west towards the Iowa river, the drainage of this county is south and east through various creeks into the Cedar river. These creeks all have well defined channels through the Iowa drift, but as a rule have not reached into the Wisconsin drift. In other words, if you should drive north and south through the county on the section line running through the city of Hampton, you would cross a large number of beautiful creeks, some of them quite large. If you would parallel this road four miles west, you would find that these creeks had lost themselves and that the lands in that portion of the county originally were without outlets, except for extreme overflows, and that a large portion of the same consisted of sloughs, ponds and marshes. The earlier settlers in this portion of the county attempted individual drainage and many of them succeeded in draining various portions of their farms into other lower areas with considerable success, but no effective drainage was accomplished until outlets were provided under our present drainage law.

The first drainage district was established October 3, 1905, and completed about two years later. Since that time about thirty drainage districts have been established in this county, all but one of them being located in what is known as the western part of the county. The general plan has been to dig dredge ditches emptying into the headwaters of the present creeks and by this method the creeks, the natural drains of the county, have had their lengths extended largely to the west. These open ditches have formed the outlets for