Bancroft History
Bancroft, Kossuth County, Iowa, USA
Farm Area
from
"Bancroft, Iowa 1881 - 1981: 100 Years of Growing -
The Garden Spot of Iowa"
by Centennial Committee
Juanita Underkofler Clark, Editor
©1981?
Page 5
The area in the northern part of Kossuth County was not settled
as early as the southern part because of the large amount of
swamp area and wet lowlands. Those sections with higher ground
wete settled first but the early arrivals were optimistic and
knew crops would grow here when they saw the lush, tall growth
of prairie grasses, if only they could get rid of the water
in the lowlands. There were some wet spots on practically
every farm.
Plows, scrapers and shovels were used to dig the drainage
ditches. Alvah Hunt, father of Mrs. Dan McGee, and an associate,
Bill Anderson, developed a machine which was an oversize plow
that dug ditches four feet deep and almost that wide. Cables
attached to a capstan drew the plow. Long sweeps turned the
barrel of the capstan, dragging the plow along to make
artificial creeks. The plow was pulled by teams of horses.
Later Mr. Hunt and Mr. Anderson abandoned the slow and difficult
method to use a floating dredge with a crane and steam engine
for more efficient work. Mud Creek north of town was dredged
in this manner. The crew lived in a floating bunkhouse, floating
behind the dredge and were also fed their meals, prepared by
a male cook, in the bunkhouse.
According to Alonzo Schiltz, father of Marlin Schiltz, drainage
of the land was started in 1903-1904 by an open ditch being dug
from near the blacktop road, midway between the Schiltz driveway
and the Ed Blocker driveway southwest to the river. Alonzo, with
other men of the area, hired out to the county to work on the
open ditch. All that work was done by spades, horses, and dirt
scrapers. A twenty inch tile was laid and the ditch closed.
There were branches to other farms and one into Bancroft. The
first tax was assessed in 1903 with the cost for 950 acres at
$1O,OOO. This watershed was extended to approxirnately 1500
acres of land and seventy some years later these same mains
are still in use.
The nearest saw mill was Blue Earth, Minnesota and the nearest
flour mills were in Algona and Blue Earth. The mill in Algona
was on the east side of the East Des Moines River. When the
river was high and could not be crossed, the Bancroft people
went to Blue Earth to get their flour ground. This was a full
day's journey each way. Wheat grinding cost 10 percent of the
wheat and the mill kept all of the resulting wheat bran. "Cash
money was scarce and hard to come by."
The first rural electricity in this area west of Bancroft was
put in, in 1929. Three neighbors, Pete Schiltz, Henry Blocker
and Alonzo Schiltz paid a total of $1000 to Interstate Power
Company to have the poles and lines set to each place. The other
rural line was strung to the Frank Fangman and Harold Hamilton
farms.
"The bill for wiring for Alonzo came to $120.00 with the bulbs.
The house had one light fixture in each room; the barn had four
lights; the corn crib, two lights, and the hoghouse and machine
shed two lights each." Previous to this the milking and night
work were done with the light of oil lanterns.
E-mail: dwagner2@isd.net
©2003 DJW
Last Modified:
November 1, 2003