Our story really begins with the  arrival of  the three Ewart brothers, Matt, Robert, and Robinson, in 1862--just one hundred years ago--to Poweshiek County from Ohio.  They settled in section twenty of Pleasant Township.  The Ewart brothers' uncle, Jim Ewart, who came to Iowa with them, moved to Missouri and lived in the Jesse James territory; however Jesse James never tried to rob Jim Evart's bank, of which he was president. This man, who later died a millionaire, drank a full quart of whiskey, for forty years, never missing a day.

The three brothers bought about 2500 acres of land in this section and surrounding sections.  The land on which the town of Evart was later built was included in the purchase by the Ewart family.

The early settlers of neighboring communities stated that the Ewart family accomplished more in the interest of the township than anyone else and were its most influential citizens.[1]  Some even went so far as to say that the land was improved at the very moment they purchased it.

The Ewart brothers built as a result of the shipment of cattle all over the  world, a, beautiful mansion.  The brothers would ship cattle to a certain part of the world, and in exchange. would receive as payment some lumber, or more valuable items.  These articles kept accruing until there was an item from almost every country in the world. These all went into the house, which had a double row of bricks on the inside and frame on the outside, in some way or another in the form of curtains, furniture, or carpeting.  It soon became very famous, as it was the most outstanding and finest house in Poweshiek County, especially for being in a rural area.

James McCormick, now living in Ewart, says that the thing he remembers the most about the house was the steeples. As he has been inside the house on different occasions, he remembers that the house was magnificent. It had beautiful lighting fixtures, which were not exactly chandeliers,  but very similar.

Mrs. Frank Agnew, now residing in Grinnell, told of the music lessons given by Mr. Way of Grinnell in the Ewart mansion.  Mr. Way came to Ewart periodically by way of the Grinnell-Montezuma Railroad.  Perhaps the things that Impressed her the most were the upright piano and the hard wood  floors,  which were quite a luxury at that time.

The John Boyd family presently living In Brooklyn, was living in the twenty thousand dollar mansion at the time when it burned.  Mrs. Boyd remembered the roomy closets as being a great asset to a housewife.  She said the house had a lot of fireplaces. There had been several fires in the house 'before the fatal one, whose cause was  attributed to one of the fireplaces.

On a Sunday evening in May, 1923,  the weather was slightly chilly, so the occupants built a fire in the fireplace. Unfortunately it was clogged and it forced sparks into the house and into the attic. Of course, Ewart's citizens felt badly about the house burning for it was a landmark which was treasured by them. It also put some young girls out of a job for the only job a young woman could do at that time besides being a housewife was to be a school teacher, or to be a maid in the Ewart mansion.

Even today people still come there remembering but not finding the cherished Ewart    mansion.  They can find, however, a house where Mr. and  Mrs. Lester Slycord live. Just north of them is the once prosperous town of Ewart.

"Its business men are an enterprising, get-a-head class and the amount of grain, hogs, and cattle handled at the point will compare favorably with larger places."

The above statement was found in the History of Poweshiek County of Iowa  published in 1880, just  five years after it had taken on the name of Ewart in  1875.

This bustling little town's first building,  besides the mansion was a residence,  built in 1875 by L. H. Harris.  This emphasizes how fast the town grew, for he built the house in the spring, and in December the town was large enough to be called Ewart.

The first store, however, was not erected until the following spring of 1876 by A. B. Woods, who later became the leading business man of Ewart.  Mr. Woods also had fought for the Union in the Civil War and became famous in December 1864 during the taking of the Spanish Fort at Mobile Bay, his company being in the middle of the fighting.  He was not only the general store manager in Ewart, but the postmaster, and the station agent for the railroad all at the same time[MLI1] . 

The Grinnell-Montezuma Railroad was built in the fall of 1875, running diagonally northwest and southeast.  J. B. Grinnell in his Men and Events of Forty Years stated:

The Grinnell and Montezuma Railroad, of which I was president, was built under my contract.  It kept the county seat where the people were mainly liberal, and despite the bad faith of a few, did not bring the predicted loses.  The sale was to the Iowa Central, which finds it a good feeder and not a local foe to its business.

What helped the railroad was the stockyard and the shipment of cattle, not only by the Ewarts, but by those who lived nearby.

J. B. Grinnell, M. Snyder, and John Hall were the main contributors to the railroad, which was built  by subscriptions of people along the line at a cost of $55,000.  The eighteen-mile railroad ran two trains each way, every week day in 1880.  These excellent railroad facilities were a great asset to Ewart.  It has been just twenty-three years ago since the track was removed ( 1939 ).  Even at that time the railroad was still being quite extensively used.

Another asset of the village was its doctor, W. B. Cotton, born in Ohio.  His father was an early insurance salesman.  Dr. Cotton attended Cleveland Medical College, first practicing medicine in Nevada and Cumberland, Ohio.  In 1876 he came to Iowa and took more medical training in Keokuk.  He came to Ewart on May 23, 1880, from Daytonville, Iowa.  “His wife was highly cultivated and held considerable literary attainments.”[2]

Another man interested in the medical profession was  W. H. Harris, who was born in Grinnell and attended the medical college in Chicago.  He came to Ewart in 1859 and engaged himself in the drug business, for he was preparing himself for the medical profession and had not enough education then.

Ewart not only had outstanding professional men, it had in 1880 the outstanding farmer of Poweshiek County, W. C. Cleland, born in Ireland.  Before coming to Ewart, he had lived in Rock Island, Illinois, for eight years.  In Ewart he began life in very moderate circumstances, but because of his thrift and industry he prospered.  He farmed four hundred acres, mostly under cultivation, and well stocked.  He also had a fruitful orchard.

Ewart’s shoemaker, George T. Burns, conceived the idea that the West offered better opportunities than Philadelphia for an ambitious businessman, so after living in several different towns nearby, he came to Ewart in March 1879.

Newton Wasson was the wagon maker and general repairer during the 1880’s.  Being quite an accomplished and industrious workman, he built up a large trade.

Ewart had a very unusual factory, which was the mattress factory run by Mr. Decker.  The mattresses were made by hand.  The business died down for awhile, so the factory closed, but a few years ago it was opened again.  Since Mr. Decker’s death, the factory has no longer been in operation.

The barber shop was opposite from the elevator.

Other businesses were the creamery, the implement store, the lumberyard, and an ice cream parlor.  The creamery was a cooperative that ran for a few years but was not very profitable, so it was remodeled into a dwelling house and sold to George Berry, who has lived there ever since.

A business that might have made Ewart a big city was the Quaker Oats Company.  John Stuart’s successor to himself and his partner was his son Robert.  Born at Embro, in 1852, he became interested in his father’s business.  While still a boy, however, he dreamed of bigger things than that which were in Ingersall, and larger companies than his father’s took shape in his mind.

Before he became of age, he came to the United States where he was intrigued with the profitable looking opportunities for the oatmeal millers.  Robert was so enthusiastic about the prospects in America that in 1873, he and his father set out to seek their fortune.

They first went to Chicago, and thought that the city was the ideal city for their mill.  However, they, as many settlers, had the urge to go father west.  They crossed the Mississippi and looked for a good place to construct  a mill.  One of these communities was Ewart.

They were very impressed with what they saw, so they decided to build the mill in Ewart.  Unfortunately the Ewarts would to sell any land to them, for they didn’t want their town any larger than it was, as they had originally planned the town and owned the major portion of it.

Disappointed, the Stuarts kept searching and finally their choice fell on Cedar Rapid, Iowa, where they decided to build their mill:  a mill which was not like the lesser one they had left behind, but one which was truly American, full of new life and great adventure.  And to think, it could have been in Ewart!

It was said of Ewart when it was in its prime, that its citizens were “consdierably in the advance of the average intelligence and enterprise.”[3]

Today (1962) the railroad is gone; the store, the wagon box factory, the creamery, and the barbershop are no longer here.  All that is left is the grain elevator and a blacksmith shop.  In fact, the new addition to the community is a blacksmith shop located in the north part of Ewart.

Some say the decline of the businesses in Ewart was caused by the advent of automobiles.  People went to nearby towns to do their purchasing.  Actually, at one time, Ewart had almost as good a chance to become prosperous as Montezuma, Malcom, or Grinnell.  Unfortunately fires that are still talked about plagued the community.  Most of the business portion of Ewart was destroyed by fire in 1910, but the citizens at once rebuilt it, improving the business district considerably.  However, other single fires lowered the morale of the community.  Some of the business men then went on to other larger towns.

The churches have helped to keep a mutual feeling among the people of Ewart.  If it were not for the spiritual guidance and uplift of the United Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, Ewart’s people would not have been so closely knit together.

Some years prior to the organization of the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist of the township had formed a class, later organized a church society and erected a modest, but substantial building.  The Methodist Church, however, was not very strong.  It was discontinued about ten years ago (1952) and the building was torn down about eight years ago.  (1954.)  The early church had two services each Sunday.  At regular intervals were the typical old fashioned tent meeting revivals.

The history of the Ewart Presbyterian Church is properly a history which grew from a pioneer Sunday School into the growing church of today.  The organization began September 4, 1876, with ten charter members.  For awhile, services were held in the depot, and then they were moved to the Cleland school house.  The grain elevator was made use of in the summer, and it was here the first preaching services were held.  Rev. Shearer from Oskaloosa preached from behind a dry good box which served as the pulpit.  Bundles of lathes served as pews for these first services.

The first building was erected in the summer of 1880 on a lot that was a gift from the Ewart family.  It cost the 32 members $1000 for the 30 X 46 frame church.  This building burned in 1902.

A new church was soon built and was paid for at the same time the contractor turned it over to the church authorities for a cost of $2800.  The faulty construction of the second church, and its inability to meet the needs of the present day, led to the building of the present-day church in 1922.

The Presbyterian Church had night services during its early years.  Mr. Frank Agnew said that on Sunday evenings one could hardly find a place to be seated.  In the earlier days, there were no movies or other activities to attend, and church-going on Sunday evenings served as entertainment for young people as well as for the older folks.  However, today there are no preaching services on Sunday night, but the Youth Fellowship meets every two weeks.

Today the church is a prosperous one, and as it was in the early settlements, is a very vital part of community life.  Early Sunday morning one can hear the chimes of the church bell calling people to come to worship God.

Another important part of Ewart was its school.  In the early days, citizens established schools wherever enough pupils could be called together.  The leading educators of Pleasant Township included John Cassidy, Owen Farmer, A. B. Woods (the owner of the now Ladely farm), Alvin Jones, Alexander Porter, and C. W. Gould, Robert Ewart, and many others.

“The early settlers, although poor as the poorest, could always be relied on to vote a tax support of their schools.”[4]

As Ewart grew, the small school house in  the west part of the district serving Ewart soon could not accommodate all of the pupils.  On September 17, 1883, a portion of District #7 was cut off, including the town of Ewart, from which sub district #9 was formed.

This met with strong opposition in the township, but A. B. Woods rented a house and hired a teacher for the summer term.  On September 15, 1884, the board in regular session passed a motion to abolish the newly formed sub district #9.  In spite of this, the board members were very persistent and did not give up hope for a school.

Again on March 16, 1885, the electors were asked for $800 for a school house, but unfortunately they failed.  On May 21, 1887, another vote was taken, which resulted in a tie, showing that they had made some progress.  Finally, on May 28, 1887, a motion to build a schoolhouse in Ewart carried.  The tax to build the school in Ewart was the sub district alone, and it amount to something over $800.

In a few years the school was destroyed by fire, but a larger one succeeded it, in which two teachers were employed and the higher grades added.

The early teachers were paid $25 to $30 a month during the summer months, and $35 to $40 during the winter.  The school sessions began with a six month year and gradually increased against some opposition to seven, then eight, and finally to the present day, nine month school session.  Teachers’ salaries also increased little by little until about $300 a month was paid in the 1957, the last year that the school was open.

The school closed in that year as a result of the Consolidation Program.  The school that had once educated over 50 students a years under two teachers in two rooms, semi divided in the early years, but partitioned off into two separate rooms later, is now used as a voting center.

It was just west of the school house on the Kenneth Haworth farm that an airplane crashed in 1916.  Eccentric Billy Robinson lived in Grinnell.  Kenneth Haworth’s brother who was attending Iowa College (now Grinnell College) and father went to see Billy.  While they were there, Billy was in a good mood and decided to show them his airplane, which everyone in surrounding communities knew he had, for it was unusual to own an airplane.  However, few people really got to see the airplane up close, for some reason, Billy had constructed a large wall around it.

Everyone who had an airplane was trying to set new altitude records, just as we are still trying to by research in outer space.

A few days after Kenneth Haworth’s brother and father had seen the plane in 1916, Billy took the little craft for a flight.  He rose to an altitude of 14,000 feet, but he blacked out because of an insufficient supply of oxygen.  Fortunately he recovered consciousness before anything serious happened.

The following day he took the airplane up to an even higher altitude, and again – so it is thought—he lost consciousness.  He was not so lucky this time.  His plane crashed on the farm where Kenneth Haworth now lives.  One could find debris for quite a large radius.  The cushion on the plane was found on the porch of the house where the author now resides.

Just south of the school house on the east side of the street was the ball field, where at first hard ball was played.  Later, bleachers and flood lights were erected in the late twenties or early thirties.  The Ewart team, which consisted of farmers and merchants of Ewart, was described by Frank Agnew as a  “pretty fair team.”  This team played teams from neighboring towns.  The games were big events in the community at first, but the attendance dropped and the interest lowered, so about 1938 or 1940 the games were discontinued.  In the ball field's place now stand government grain bins.

One of the greatest changes in the history of mankind was the electric light.  It must have an outstanding day in the memory of persons who witnessed it when the lights were first turned on in Montezuma.  It is known to have caused some difficulty in Ewart as shown by the article from the Montezuma Republican of December 12, 1888:       

Ewart

was

known

for

its

industrious

people

and

their

honesty.

IT FOOLED 'EM

There is probably no walk of life more crowded with thrilling adventures than railroading.  Last Saturday evening conductor Spears, who has been running extra for Mr. Monsley while the latter has been in Chicago, made an extra run to the county seat.  Just as the train pulled out of Ewart, on a piece of straight track and everybody aboard was feeling congenial, the  on the track looking ahead at an object that was twinkling along about four miles down the road, apparently the headlight of an approaching train.  Everybody aboard felt that they had been saved from a frightful wreck.  The train was back on the sidetrack at Ewart, and after waiting about a half hour for the train to come up, Conductor Spears overheard a citizen of Montezuma complain about the delay, as the county seat was to be ablaze with the flaring light of electricity for the first time.  A sudden suspicion began to bare itself into the “cons” intellect.  He wanted to go on.  He called “fatty” to one side and said something to him.  He kicked the ground, looked at the highlight still glimmering in the distance, and got on the train yelled, “all aboard!”  

Other changes have come, such as the telephone and other are yet to come not only to Ewart but to the whole world.  The changes that are written in this paper could be classified as legend; still others are factual.  Whether completely true or not, it helps to keep alive the story of Ewart.  

© 1961 Mary Lou Iverson

(This was a paper that was prepared for my Montezuma High School English teacher, Dorothy Scharer in 1961.)

• Mrs. John Boyd  

• Mr. and Mrs. James McCormick

• Mr. and Mrs. Frank Agnew

• Mrs. Bert Stemsrud

• Mrs. Edith M. Hockey 

• Howard  J. Thomas, Jr. of the Quaker Oats Company

• Kenneth Haworth

• many, many others