Castana is located in western Iowa, just east of the Nebraska border, 20 miles east of the Missouri River and 35 miles southeast of Sioux City. It is the center point of Monona County, which was founded in 1851, the countyÕs name derived from the Indian term for Òbeautiful valley.Ó Castana is half of a mile east of the Maple River and straddles the two Iowa townships of Kennebec and Center. The region sits within the long Missouri River Valley, noted for the richness of its soil and agricultural yield. On a smaller scale, Castana also sits within the Maple River Valley, which, if anything, is more fertile still.
Surrounding Castana to the east and west are the Loess Hills, formed by strong winds that swept up yellow glacial silt from the valleyÕs flood plain 14,000 years ago and deposited the dust into a continuous, elevated, ever-growing structure. This formation runs from Minnesota to Missouri. The only comparable formations of long, elevated loess soil structures in the world are the plateaus of central China. The Loess Hills of Iowa comprise the first rise in land east of the flood plain.
The Loess Hills have a distinctive appearance. Due to the erosive nature of loess soil and its ability to stand in vertical columns when dry, the stabilized dunes were eroded into sharp-edged ridge crests and slopes ranging from gentle to very steep, taking on an almost corrugated look. In time, grasses stabilized the hills and softened their appearance somewhat. To this day, the Loess Hills contain the largest concentration of mixed grasses in the United States.
Late in the 19th century there were few trees and no forests in the Loess Hills around Castana. Early residents planted oak, cedar, apple, peach, cherry, walnut, and other trees for lumber, fruit and nuts. The name ÒCastanaÓ is derived from the Latin word for chestnut. Legend has it that J.B.P. Day, a founding father, planted chestnut trees and named the town after his favorite nut bearing tree from his native Maine. Other trees thrived and to this day the Loess Hills in Monona County are forested with a variety of trees. Chestnuts, however, are few and far between.
Lewis and Clark explored the Missouri River Valley in August of 1804 on their historical expedition to the west. There is a monument to their visit at Blue Lake, west of Castana. Until late in the 19th century, the Sioux, Omaha and other tribes of Native Americans camped and hunted in the area. Their history in the area was a long one. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that early residents buried their dead here over 4,000 years ago and Native Americans were still present as the first farmers settled the area.
Records show that Sam King came to the new Monona County in a covered wagon from Rushville, Indiana in 1854. King and his wife built a house and settled on several hundred acres of land along the Maple River. That was the beginning of what would become the town of Castana.
In the summer of 1855, four men arrived in the area between the Little Sioux and Maple Rivers in search of an area in which to build new enterprises. J.B.P Day was one of the men, as was T. Elliot, J.E. Morrison and a Mr. Childs. They spent the fall and early winter exploring the region and were attracted to the verdant area along the Little Sioux. They determined that this was the place to settle and returned home to make the preparations.
The men returned with family members the next year, others arrived, and the area on the east side of the Little Sioux River began to take on the appearance of a village. Plans were made to build a water-powered grist mill to serve farmers and to begin a town that would be the future county seat of Monona County. The river did not cooperate, however, and regularly overflowed its banks, flooding the nearby properties. To compound the problem, green-head flies and mosquitoes drove the residents crazy. Most moved west to the nearby town of Ashton, but a few moved east a few miles, over the Loess Hills, to the Maple Valley. W.B.P. Day was one of the latter group, locating his homestead on several hundred acres near the Maple River. The present city of Castana now stands on a portion of DayÕs old homestead.
Seth Smith, a veteran of the Mexican-American War, moved to Grant Township in Monona County with his wife Sophia and eight children in 1853. For several years he and his daughter Ellen worked on the Omaha Reservation, Seth as a government gunsmith and blacksmith and Ellen as a teacher. Ellen was unmarried, considered a ÒspinsterÓ in those days, and lived with her parents. She was a particular favorite of her father. In 1856 he established a farm on 430 acres on the outskirts of what would become Castana, built a handsome, three-story home and named the property Ellenwood.
In 1861 Smith was chosen captain of the Monona Union Guards, whose main job was to protect against Indian aggressions, and he later fought in the Civil War. Ellen met and married a speculator who had fallen on hard times, Socrates Smith (no previous relation), and they lived at Ellenwood and maintained her fatherÕs farm after his death. Their daughter Euretta would become one of CastanaÕs most prominent citizens and would marry one of its legendary figures, Dr. W.W. Gingles. And two of their grandsons would go on to considerable success and prominence: the entrepreneur and noted physician, Earl E. Gingles, and the baseball star turned educator, LeRoy Smith.
Ellenwood became the stagecoach stop for the region, where horses were watered and passengers fed and lodged. It was here that the mail was delivered to the area and even after the railroad came through Castana, the mail traveled by stagecoach for many years.
As more farmers settled in the area, A.J. Hathaway commenced a project to build a mill on the Maple River to serve the growing area. He began building a dam at a bend in the river in 1862 but a shortage of lumber caused him the need to build a saw mill first. Hathaway finished the saw mill in 1864 and the gristmill in 1866. Shortly thereafter he ground his first load of corn and hauled it to Sioux City, a landmark event in CastanaÕs commercial history. In between time, the Castana post office was established in 1865 with Hathaway appointed as postmaster.
The town of Castana really got its start in 1866 when A.G. Hammond of Hartford, Connecticut purchased 200 acres of land in the Maple River Valley, just east of the river, and commissioned Day to build a store building and a hotel there. Hammond died that winter, however, and Day and his brother, F.A. Day, bought the land and continued the project. The building was completed by July 4, 1867 and a crowd gathered to celebrate. An accomplished violinist happened to be present and the party lasted until morning. This was the first of many memorable Fourths of July celebrated in Castana. Later that year the post office moved into the Day and Co. store.
Native Americans were not integrated into the everyday lives of early Castana settlers, but they were never far from peopleÕs minds. It was a common enough occurrence for farmers to see Native Americans in Western Iowa and relations were generally friendly. Some Iowa settlers traded furs, pelts and food with local Indians and from time to time they shared meals. Most farmers, however, were uneasy about the nearby presence of Indian tribes.
In 1856 a band of Sioux from the Dakotas had come down into the Spirit Lake area north of Castana (close to IowaÕs northwestern border), under the leadership of Chief Inkpaduta. Inkpaduta was a violent, unstable man, feared by his own people and soon to be feared and loathed by white settlers. He resented that his people were cold and hungry and that whites occupied their former hunting grounds. After a series of tense encounters with farmers, Inkpaduta and his band went on the war path. They invaded the home of the Gardner family in March of 1857 and killed every member of the family except for the youngest child, Abbie, a girl of 14. The Sioux carried her away as a prisoner and that evening Abbie watched the Indians dance around the fire with the scalps of her parents, brothers and sisters mounted onto long poles.
In the following days the Indians visited the other homes around Spirit Lake and Lake Okoboji. They killed every person they encountered, men, women and children -- 35 to 40 in all -- except for three adult women whom they kidnapped. Inkpaduta let his band of Sioux north into Minnesota determined to kill more white settlers, taking the three women and Abbie Gardner with him. A group of Iowa farmers organized to chase down the marauding Sioux, but the bitter cold of the late winter made it impossible to catch the Indians. Several men froze to death along the way.
In time two of the women were killed by InkpadutaÕs men, but Abbie and the fourth woman, Mrs. Marble, were eventually bought by Indian scouts for horses, gun powder, blankets and other items. InkpadutaÕs rampage was known as the Spirit Lake Massacre. In 1862 more whites were massacred in Minnesota, but things quieted down for the next few years in Iowa.
In 1868 that calm came to an abrupt end as the Sioux went on the warpath again, this time further south, in the region along the Iowa and Nebraska border. A hostile force moved north to south through the Sioux and Maple Valleys. Settlers in the upper Maple Valley fled south in their covered wagons and on horseback, alerting and collecting neighbors along the way. Over 60 of these settlers stopped at the Ellenwood farm a mile north of Castana and urged Socrates and Ellen Smith to flee as well.
Ellen refused to leave the farm. She was knowledgeable about the local tribes from her work as a missionary teacher on the Omaha tribal reservation. Socrates stood up for his wife and she convinced the settlers that this was considered Holy Ground, that it was believed that the Holy Spirit had appeared out of the Maple River close to here and therefore there would be no blood shed here by Native Americans. She persuaded the terrified group that they would be safer staying there than risking being run down by the rampaging Sioux.
When the Sioux arrived they were in full war regalia and they circled the farm house, screaming, charging their horses toward the house, and shooting arrows into the air, trying to frighten the settlers into fleeing again. The settlers were frightened and unnerved, but it was too late to run at that point. For three days the Sioux kept up the menacing commotion, but the settlers did not leave. Finally the Sioux moved on, not having harmed a single person. After a few more days, the settlers returned to their homes in the area.
CastanaÕs first baseball club was established in 1872. On July 4th, 1873, the Grange organized another big Independence Day celebration in Castana. A sizeable crowd gathered, the baseball team got up a game and a six-pound cannon was brought in to liven up the festivities. Unfortunately an early afternoon rain deluge dispersed the crowd and ended the celebration. Flooding in general, caused by the Maple River overflowing its banks, plagued the community during these years. Again and again homes and businesses were inundated, crops were damaged and life was disrupted. The low point of this valley could not handle heavy rain, either.
CastanaÕs early growth was affected by two events that impacted the entire nation. In 1872 a severe equine epidemic killed over 25 percent of AmericaÕs horses. The Great Epizootic of 1872, also called the Horse Flu Epidemic, was highly contagious and swept across the country. Nearly every farm reported that horses were sick and dying. Shipyards, factories and most other industries relied on horses for transportation and business around the country ground nearly to a halt. U.S. Army units engaged in the Indian wars had to fight on foot, but, luckily, so did their adversaries. It was understood years later that the disease was spread by mosquitoes. Late in 1872 the epidemic dissipated; the mosquitoes were killed off by cold winter weather.
In September, 1873, AmericaÕs economy began to crash. The panic of 1873 was the start of the Long Depression. (It was actually named the Great Depression and carried that title for years, until the largest and most important economic collapse in modern history in the 1930s earned that distinction.)
Following the Civil War there was a boom in railroad construction, especially in the northern states. Railroads became the nationÕs largest employer outside of agriculture, but the industry involved great amounts of money and risk. Huge infusions of cash from speculators fueled abnormal growth and overbuilding of depots, docks, factories and ancillary facilities.
Over expansion was even worse in Europe and on May 9, 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange crashed, no longer able to sustain false expansion, insolvency and dishonest manipulations. Throughout Europe, then New York, banks began to fail. The upward business cycle had run its course and there was nowhere to go but down. A major U.S. bank, Jay Cook and Company failed, setting off a chain of American bank failures.
Of AmericaÕs 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt. A total of 18,000 businesses failed in two years. Unemployment reached 14 percent by 1876. Construction work stopped, wages were cut, real estate values plunged and corporate profits vanished. Americans had little confidence in the banks that were left, and banks had no money to lend.
Farmers were affected by a huge downturn in commodity prices. Grains, produce and livestock could not sell for enough to cover costs, let alone generate a profit. Many farmers commonly operated on a deficit for part of the year and relied on bank loans to finance operations until the crops were sold. With no money available, some farms failed and others barely survived. The days of prosperity disappeared and there was no money for anything but the barest essentials. Still the self sufficiency of farmers allowed them to get through these years with less disaster than industrial workers. As bad as things got, farm families did not starve.
While the U.S. slowly pulled out of its depression, farmers and residents of the Maple Valley focused great attention on the approach of the railroad. A train route and depot would make or break a town like Castana, as it did all over the United States. It would mean there would be an accessible market for farmersÕ produce and livestock, they could buy manufactured goods, the value of their land would increase and they could travel more easily and comfortably.
The Chicago & North Western completed its line to East Mapleton (today know simply as Mapleton), nine miles north of Castana, in November of 1877. It was anticipated that the line would soon after be extended along the river, passing through Castana on its way to Onawa, 10 miles to the southwest. Rumors, false starts and preparation went on for years.
In the mid-1880s word got out that the Milwaukee Railroad was planning a route west, along the southern edge of East Mapleton. This prompted the Chicago & North Western to immediately activate its plans to extend its tracks to Onawa to avoid the expense of having to build over the new Milwaukee line. There was great excitement in Castana, but it didnÕt last long. It was determined that the Chicago & North Western would build its line farther east, away from (Castana and) the banks of the Maple River, to avoid any problems with flooding.
This caused a dilemma. The town of Castana was close to the river and the railroad was coming through half of a mile to the east. In order to flourish, Castana would have to relocate. Several families had already done so, moving away from the river and to higher ground in order to avoid the annual flooding. The year was 1886. The Chicago & North Western completed its line past Castana; the residents of Castana began to move the town east just short of a mile, up a slight hill above the tracks; the railroad opened a Castana depot; and thus began the boom that would last 40 years.
The new town took on momentum in a hurry. It retained the name of Castana and from that time on the former town was referred to as Old Castana.
Elsewhere in the United States the move was on to the cities. Rural development and the enterprise of small farmers would continue to be important, but would no longer form the backbone of American enterprise. By 1900 one in seven Americans would live in a city of 250,000 population or more. (One in 12 Americans would live in New York, Chicago or Philadelphia alone.)
There was an explosion of new scientific knowledge and monumental breakthroughs in medicine and technology. Electric lighting and the telephone were invented and perfected.
Americans placed a growing emphasis on sophisticated education which ushered in the first building boom in American colleges and graduate schools. Studying the sciences was much in vogue but there were equal emphases on economics and history. A focus on teaching jurisprudence led to important breakthroughs in the writing and interpretation of law.
The new field of sociology soared in popularity and an educator born and raised in Castana, Dr. H.B. (Horace Boise) Hawthorn, became one of AmericaÕs most prominent sociologists. He authored 12 books and became a full professor at the University of Akron before returning to Iowa to teach at Morningside College.
The emergence of women in society was evident everywhere in the growth of American cities. In 1874 the WomenÕs Christian Temperance Union was formed and in a short time took on increasing national importance. The 1880s saw a stream of women into the workplace, taking jobs in cotton mills, the garment industry, retails sales and in teaching. The secretarial field was soon dominated by women. More women than ever wished to complete their educations and enrolled in college. WomenÕs Clubs sprung up all over the country and in 1889 400 of these joined forces to form the General Federation of WomenÕs Clubs. At the turn of the 20th century, CastanaÕs Thursday Club would embody the best of American womenÕs striving for education and culture.
The growth of big cities was liberating women from the back breaking toil of the farms and increasing numbers of young, single women made the move to the cities. The trend was not so evident in the fertile farm regions of the Midwest, however. Nothing came easy to the hard-working families of Castana, but the new town thanked its blessings and focused on prosperity and growth.
Within a month of the completion of the Chicago and North WestÕs Castana depot, construction started on the first business in the new village: the warehouse of Day and Co.Õs general merchandise store. By the fall the store was completed and the business made its move from Old Castana. By the end of the year, S.L. Willets had moved his smithy to the new town and opened up a blacksmith shop. In December John C. Carritt opened a grocery store. Having served as the postmaster in Old Castana, he moved that operation out of his fatherÕs farm house and conducted the post office from his new store as well.
As the town took shape in that first year, a construction boom initiated and lasted several years. New farm operations began to occupy all the surrounding land and houses sprouted up in and around Castana.
Two lumber yards went into competition, but business was sufficient to sustain both for a number of years. Bowman Lumber Company was renowned for its immense stock of lumber, lime, cement, plastering material, doors, sash, blinds and window screens. Their local agent was Mr. E. Brown. Down near the Chicago & North Western depot, the Green Bay Lumber Co. opened a lumber yard with C.R. Nixon as its agent. They operated numerous yards in other cities and were known as one of the largest lumber and building materials houses in the west.
The Castana Brick Yard, founded by the Kinnaman brothers, went into operation near the train depot and took advantage of a particular type of clay found in the nearby hills to produce high quality bricks used in constructing several of the early buildings in town. They also shipped bricks via train to other cities and prospered in the area for many years.
A.J. Lynch opened a store carrying a general line of hardware and farm machinery. F.M. Dove built a building to house a butcher shop, which he ran himself. R. H. Loucks put up a building and opened it as a drug store (purchased two years later by CastanaÕs first physician, Dr. J. H. Talboy). Mrs. Bigelow launched a millenary enterprise and Colis S. Penor opened a combination barber shop and pool hall.
J.T. Cutter put up a livery stable on the edge of CastanaÕs new downtown area, next door to S.L. WillitsÕ blacksmith shop. Across the street was the Castana house, CastanaÕs first hotel, opened by Jane Winstanley. It resembled a simple residence but was set up with 10 well-appointed rooms for guests. It was known as Òa good dollar a day house.Ó Two years later it was sold to Mrs. W.H and Julia Dryden and became the Dryden Hotel.
William H. Waples established quite a name for himself in Castana over the years. He established a depot for agricultural implements along with partner E. W. Copeland on the west side of the railroad tracks. In 1887 he bought Copeland out and continued to grow the business. He was known to have Òas large and complete stock of farm machinery as could be found outside of Sioux City.Ó In later years, Waples moved his hardware business to CastanaÕs downtown area and Waples & Sons Hardware became a fixture of the town.
Christianity was prominent in CastanaÕs history and the first Congregational Church was erected the year the town was founded, 1886. Its first permanent minister was the Reverend S. D. Horine and the church often filled its seating capacity of over 200 worshippers. Records show the building was erected for $1,200. In later years new churches would be founded in Castana to serve Adventist and Methodist worshippers.
While merchants prospered, it was the farmers in and around Castana who provided the backbone of the townÕs economy. Their produce and livestock supplied the goods to justify three stops per day by the railroad. Their profits filled the bank vaults and their purchases fueled the success of the assorted merchants. These were small operations by todayÕs standards, generally between 60 and 120 acres (80 acres was typical), and family-run. There were no motors in these days, no tractors, and it was hard work by humans and horses that made the farms operate at a profit. Corn was by far the leading crop of CastanaÕs farmers, but they also grew wheat, oats, barley and rye.
CastanaÕs grasslands proved to be excellent grazing and cattle flourished. Cattle were raised to be shipped to the great stockyards of Chicago and Kansas City and cows also supplied a productive dairy industry. Hogs thrived and reproduced and were another successful export from Castana farms. Eggs were another.
The Chicago & North West depot area was an immediate center of business activity. A stock yard was constructed near the depot to accommodate livestock waiting to go to market. A horse-powered grain elevator processed deliveries from farmers six days per week. It had the ability to load up to 8,000 bushels per day onto boxcars, exceptional for the time, and the facility had a storage capacity of 15,000 bushels.
The single most important downtown business in CastanaÕs early development arose out of the dairy industry. 1n 1889 J. M. Brent & Co. assisted in organizing the Castana Creamery Company, a cooperative venture consisting of many of the townÕs farmers and merchants. Brent & Company built a modern creamery and cheese factory. It was 30Õ x 52Õ, two stories and contained seven rooms: a receiving room, office, manufacturing room, ice room, cold storage compartment, cheese cutting room and a store room.
An adjacent annex was the engine room with a 12-horsepower engine, centrifugal separator, cheese and milk vats, churn, cheese press and scales. The entire plant was built for a total of $6,600.
The creamery was supplied by local farmers who provided an average of 3,500 gallons of milk per day in return for a proportional share of profits. Cream, cheese and related processed dairy products were shipped daily to market via train and comprised an important element of CastanaÕs prosperity.
Other early settlers -- farmers, merchants, educators and entrepreneurs -- established families whose names would remain important to CastanaÕs development for decades: Ordway, Bouslaugh, Wiley, Hathaway, Fischer, Winnegar, Hurst, Nutt, Nielson, Miller, Norcross, Nixon, McNutt, Gingles, Brown, Hawthorn, Davies, Riley, French, Nixon, Roe, Rawlings, and more.
One enterprise that brought great pride to the town was the Hotel Castana, located at the south end of Third StreetÕs commerce area, at the corner of Willow. This handsome, two-story wood building earned a reputation for elegance with travelers and local townspeople, as well. The entire building was comfortably heated by a furnace in the basement. Customers could relax on the hotelÕs elaborate porch or inside in the comfortable parlor. The Hotel Castana offered the most elegant dining in town, served on lace tablecloths with fine linens, crystal and ornate silverware.
Education was emphasized in CastanaÕs formative years and afterward became one of the townÕs most distinguishing characteristics. In 1888 J. P. Day and his wife built one of CastanaÕs most historic buildings, Hokomok Hall, at a cost of $4,000. The handsome two-story building was CastanaÕs unofficial town hall and also served as its first school house. Grades one through five occupied the lower floor while grades six through eight attended school on the top floor. The top floor also hosted CastanaÕs biggest cultural activities, dances, plays, musical performances and visiting orators, as well as being the schoolÕs gymnasium.
In later years a more comprehensive, modern frame school house was built in the townÕs northeast corner. It contained three floors of classrooms, a furnace with hot water circulation and a vast field for sports, recreation and public activities (including the gala Fourth of July celebration in 1922).
The new Castana Normal School opened in 1896 and dedication ceremonies included a sumptuous banquet at the Hotel Castana followed by a dance at Hokomok Hall. Many dignitaries attended. A dormitory for female teachers and teachers in training was built in 1901 across from the school and supplied lodging and meals. The lovely two-story building remains in its original location today, serving as a popular bed and breakfast spot known as the Dormitory Inn.
This is an excerpt from the Castana Times, May 20, 1898:
ÒThe Castana Normal School is a source of special pride to every citizen of Castana. The aim of the school is to offer every young man and woman in this part of the state an opportunity of obtaining a liberal education, and to equip them for active service in business, in teaching or for special courses in any profession. The elevating and inspiring influence of a good academic course upon the after-life of the average young person cannot be overestimated -- the young man or woman of today should be contented with nothing less.Ó
The Castana Times was founded in 1890 and published every Thursday for nearly 40 years, with occasional interruptions. J.B.P. Day financed the newspaper in its early days and occasional wrote columns under the pen name of ÒBlue Grass,Ó an old nickname derived from his habit of carrying around blue grass seeds in his pockets to sew around town when he came upon bare ground. Jed Fuller ran the paper and directed advertising until C. H. Aldridge took over as editor. W.C. Newton did most of the reporting in the early years. In later years the Castana Times was taken over by J. E. ÒMacÓ McNamara and attained a reputation as one of the finest newspapers in Western Iowa.
CastanaÕs early growth and prosperity, plus its geographic location in the center of Monona County, positioned it well to become the county seat. With that distinction would come a further boost to business and the location of the county courthouse. Originally Ashton had served as de facto county seat, but Ashton did not flourish and began to dissipate while nearby Onawa grew into a more established town. Elections in 1861 and 1862 narrowly established Onawa as the county seat. Fewer than 250 votes were cast in each election. Castana was not on the ballot.
In 1889 a new election was scheduled. The county had grown and several of its villages -- Castana included -- had matured into thriving business and population centers. The new election would once again determine the county seat, but the location of a new courthouse would be at stake as well. There was bickering in the county over funding construction of the county courthouse. Towns that would not get the court house were not eager to pay for it. After much discussion and compromise, the opportunity was put out to the countyÕs towns to bid on funding the construction as part of the effort to become county seat. There was a feeling in the county that Castana would win with a reasonable bid.
CastanaÕs civic leaders reached a stalemate on the advisability of this financial commitment and as a last resort backed East Mapleton as the new county seat. The election became a battle between the countyÕs east and west regions with major self-interests at stake. Onawa prevailed 1,682 to 1,427. Onawa won the county seat once and for all and became the site of the county courthouse, which was built in 1892. Years in the future, that would make a big difference in the comparative long-term successes of Monona CountyÕs towns.