The Register began to record the history of Iola and Allen County 147 years ago. With untiring industry on the parts of Mickey and Emerson Lynn, that early history is readily available in “The Annals of Iola and Allen County.”
Thumbing through the chronology is fascinating and an eye-opener from the perspective of 2015.
Let’s take a look:
February 1868: The stages which pass through here are crowded to overflowing every day, with persons coming to this county to settle. Frequently the lines must use extra carriages.
June 1868: We are now a little nearer putting on city airs. A barber arrived in town and has located in the hotel on Madison.
September 1868: A large number of citizens of Iola and vicinity has the pleasure of witnessing last Sabbath the dedication of the First Presbyterian Church of Iola, the first in southern Kansas and it is a pleasure to sit in a church like this, even if the sermon is rather longer than the subject seems to require.
December 1868: The city has ruled that horses cannot be hitched on our sidewalks, so it would be well to look and see if other places exist. — Iola has become possessed of a brewery. Now, to the fastidious, this may seem a calamity. But the brewery is a good one, or at least the beer is good.
March 1869: A newspaperman who traveled from Garnett to Iola reported to the Lawrence Tribune the trip “was long and extremely lonesome. We traveled nearly 20 miles without seeing a house.” — Iola is credited with a population of 800.
July 1869: Quite an excitement has prevailed within a circle of our men for a few days because of the opening of a velocipede school in Iola. For several evenings and during the entire day of Saturday last, Odd Fellows Hall was crowded with young bloods who were bound to “ride her or die.”
October 1869: Dr. Teagarden has sold out and returned to his former home. He says that he visited our graveyard, found only three or four graves made within a year, and concluded Iola was no place for a doctor and left.
December 1869: There is about $300 due on subscriptions to the Register, all of which we need very badly at the present moment. Those who cannot pay in money may bring anything that can be eaten by man or beast, or worn on the back, or burned in a stove, for which we will allow the regular market price.
March 1870: Would it not be a good plan for our city fathers to see about having some sidewalks constructed along the main streets? Let us have good plank or gravel, none of the rough flagging that “tries men’s soles.”
When times here were very different
