DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Reuben Gaines' memoir, undated

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Page 13

PAGE 13. Buxton.
It was about 200 feet from the Livery Stable to the bridge that crossed ov Bluff Creek but on this early Sunday morning when I went to cross over to the south side there was no bridge in its usual place. Our house was also 200 fe from the bridge. This was no dream or faulty vision. The bridge just simply was not there anymore. On close inspection we learned that the; "Bridge; For touring car and driver". had all gone to the bottom of Bluff Creek. The owner and driver (William Newton) who lived a mile north of our home had to cross that bridge to get home but in doing so when he got to the middle of the brid he veered to the left and knocked the whole left side span over and the whole bridge collapsed to the bottom of Bluff Creek. It was said that this incident could be filed under the head of too much liquor. 20 foot from the southeast side of the bridge was E. A. London's Grocery Store so after the bridge was rebuilt a Mr. Charley Hill (brother in law) who on occassions used our wagon team, passed over this bridge and when he reached the other side; elijah Lond came out on his porch at the grocery store and stopped Charley and reminded him that he had a ticket on file against him for $19.00 dollars and he would like to know what would you want us to do about it so Charley reflected for a few seconds and said " Why don't you take it off of the tickets and put it in the ledger. Every merchant around the square in Albia and everybody else cou have saved London $19.00 dollars if he had only known because his credibility was minus zero. Perhaps London will never know how fortunate he was to have l only $19.00 Dollars. My Mother was a church member and religiously faithful and after some discussion persuaded my father to keep the saloons closed on Sundays and she even had him to attend church on this particular sunday. Before church service was over some one came to my father in church and whispered something to him which evidently had to be bad news. Some one had gotten the keys and opened up the saloon back of the hotel and the place was crowded like sardines in a can. Dick Williams the work of all outlaws had tried to kill a fellow by the name of Cooper in that crowded room but through error he shot and killed a man that lived somewhere west of Bussey, Iowa by the name of Sharpe. The man was shot back of the head and fell to the floor on his back. It was the most sad and pathetic situation that I had witnessed with the little five or six pound dog laying on his chest as a guard to keep people away from him until the coroner came to remove the body. The faithful little dog kept guard until monday evening a vigel of twenty four hours. This outlaw was given life by the Court in Mahaska County but he only served twent years. Before this even he was always in trouble, he kept a 45 revolver on his belt at all times and a windchester hidden somewhere around the buildings or in the woods. The most centralize place at this time was the pool hall in the north of the building and the restaurant on the south side with a partiti

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PAGE 13. Buxton. It was about 200 feet from the Livery Stable to the bridge that crossed ov Bluff Creek but on this early Sunday morning when I went to cross over to the south side there was no bridge in its usual place. Our house was also 200 fe from the bridge. This was no dream or faulty vision. The bridge just simply was not there anymore. On close inspection we learned that the; "Bridge; For touring car and driver". had all gone to the bottom of Bluff Creek. The owner and driver (William Newton) who lived a mile north of our home had to cross that bridge to get home but in doing so when he got to the middle of the brid he veered to the left and knocked the whole left side span over and the whole bridge collapsed to the bottom of Bluff Creek. It was said that this incident could be filed under the head of too much liquor. 20 foot from the southeast side of the bridge was E. A. London's Grocery Store so after the bridge was rebuilt a Mr. Charley Hill (brother in law) who on occassions used our wagon team, passed over this bridge and when he reached the other side; elijah Lond came out on his porch at the grocery store and stopped Charley and reminded him that he had a ticket on file against him for $19.00 dollars and he would like to know what would you want us to do about it so Charley reflected for a few seconds and said " Why don't you take it off of the tickets and put it in the ledger. Every merchant around the square in Albia and everybody else cou have saved London $19.00 dollars if he had only known because his credibility was minus zero. Perhaps London will never know how fortunate he was to have l only $19.00 Dollars. My Mother was a church member and religiously faithful and after some discussion persuaded my father to keep the saloons closed on Sundays and she even had him to attend church on this particular sunday. Before church service was over some one came to my father in church and whispered something to him which evidently had to be bad news. Some one had gotten the keys and opened up the saloon back of the hotel and the place was crowded like sardines in a can. Dick Williams the work of all outlaws had tried to kill a fellow by the name of Cooper in that crowded room but through error he shot and killed a man that lived somewhere west of Bussey, Iowa by the name of Sharpe. The man was shot back of the head and fell to the floor on his back. It was the most sad and pathetic situation that I had witnessed with the little five or six pound dog laying on his chest as a guard to keep people away from him until the coroner came to remove the body. The faithful little dog kept guard until monday evening a vigel of twenty four hours. This outlaw was given life by the Court in Mahaska County but he only served twent years. Before this even he was always in trouble, he kept a 45 revolver on his belt at all times and a windchester hidden somewhere around the buildings or in the woods. The most centralize place at this time was the pool hall in the north of the building and the restaurant on the south side with a partiti