Fiery Willow Springs Newspaper Editor Harlan P. Dawes
The arrival of the railroad in 1882 brought a wave of immigrants from all over the United States seeking and finding opportunity, staying, and contributing significantly to Howell County's development. One such family, the Dawes, came to Willow Springs via a rented railroad car in the Spring of 1888, all the way from Postville, Iowa (It’s in the furthest northeast corner of Iowa, where it borders Minnesota and Wisconsin), well over five hundred miles of track away from here. The Dawes family lived and worked in Howell County for over fifty years, but when they died, returned to Postville.
Harlan Page Dawes was a self-made man who, at the age of thirty-six, uprooted himself from his hometown of thirteen years and moved his family to Willow Springs. He eventually became a newspaperman, and a rival newspaper, The West Plains Journal, long a political enemy, begrudgingly acknowledged his accomplishments in 1905:
“H.P. Dawes, our probate judge, comes from Yankee stock, his father, John Dawes, and his mother, Electa B. Dawes nee Hume, having been raised and married in Berkshire County, Mass. H.P. Dawes was born in Lenawee County, Michigan, November 12, 1846. His father died when he was thirteen years of age, and he shortly started out for himself, having at the time only a limited district school education, yet with the determination so characteristic of the family to be somebody in this world. He worked awhile at farming and carpentering in Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa, to which latter state he went in 1869. October 1875 Sarah H. Lassey of Postville, Iowa, became his wife.”
In fact, Harlan came to Postville in 1873, where he advertised his business as a skilled furniture and cabinetmaker in the Postville Sentinel. He and Sarah agreed to come here with their family as the West Plains Journal described:
“Three children have blessed this union: Lina I., who is manager of the Willow Springs Republican; Rollen P., who died in infancy, and Horace P., who is at home and assists on the paper. Judge Dawes moved from Iowa to Willow Springs in April 1888 and worked at his trade until 1898, when he bought the Republican, of which he is now the editor and proprietor. In the fall of 1902, he was elected probate judge of Howell County which position he is now filling with honor to himself and satisfaction to the public.”
Not all the public was satisfied with Harlan. Early in his career as a newspaperman, his criticism of the Democrats from the local to national level, including the longtime and popular Circuit Judge William N. Evans, elicited this response from Democrat J.C. Kerby, Editor of the West Plains Journal who wrote in his paper December 1898:
“In last week’s issue of that miserably printed, detestably edited and illy-gotten up, in general principles, Willow Springs Republican, there are several dirty, insinuating articles and untruthful statements, supposedly written by the would-be editor, one H.P. Dawes-who he is or what he is we know not, neither do we care-concerning and about our honorable circuit judge, W.N. Evans.”
“The Gazette is not the mouthpiece, nor the personal organ of Judge Evans, any more so than it is of any other worthy citizen of West Plains or Howell County. Neither does Judge Evans know of this article, but the time has long since passed with all honorable gentlemen who have the fortune of occupying editorial chairs, to engage in such language as is used in the articles to which we have above referred; and this is used in the articles to which we have above referred; and this is the reason we write this article.”
“Judge Evans is an honorable citizen and a worthy judge. He has lived in this community for many years before this man Dawes ever left bleeding, corrupt Kansas-or some such like place-and will live here years after Dawes is dead and forgotten. He has enjoyed the confidence of our very best citizens, and still retains their very highest esteem-such as Dawes never has or ever will-if he is built of the kind of stuff of which his articles would indicate.”
“We do not intend trying to answer Dawes’ articles further than to simply say what we have, in justice to a citizen of whom we are proud.”
Unfortunately, Horace Dawe’s side of this particular spat in print cannot be seen; the copies of the Willow Springs Republican predating 1905 have not been found for microfilming or digitizing. Dawes was a colorful editor, but much of the burden of getting the paper out fell on his daughter, Lina, who was listed as Manager in each issue. Much of Harlan’s time would be spent commuting to and from West Plains by train.
Dawes sold the Willow Springs Republican to Reverend J.F. Scherer and his son in 1906, and that should seemingly have ended Dawes’ riling of his Democratic opponents in print. It didn’t.
Lina, at the top of the first graduating class of Willow Springs High School in 1895, was bright and quickly found a job at the new Bank of Willow Springs, the first in town, rising to the rank of Assistant Cashier, second in command. She remained when her bank merged with the State Bank of Willow Springs in 1929. Active in the Congregational Church (as were her parents), the County Sunday School Society, and civic organizations, she appeared in numerous local newspapers, with her activities mentioned. Lina never married, kept purebred cats long before it was a thing, and served as an early officer in the Humane Society.
Harlan served a few more terms as Probate Judge and started an insurance business in Willow Springs. He served as a City Collector for Willow Springs, City Treasurer, Justice of the Peace, and Police Judge. He raised large gardens, had a windmill-driven well, and a large glass-heated greenhouse at the turn of the century. And, he advocated for the Republican Party by writing letters to the editor condemning Democrats.
The next big flare-up in the press came in 1915, when Dawes was included on a list of Howell County grand jurors, who were routinely called to look into matters such as the operation of the Poor Farm and, on this occasion, Willow Springs City operations. Dawes was accused of steering the jury to report and accuse city officials, who were also merchants, of selling very small amounts of merchandise to the city government, and blowing it up in the press.
Though Dawes was no longer editor of the Willow Springs Republican, he wrote a letter to the editor revealing the results of the grand jury, eliciting a response from the City Attorney Nolan B. Wilkinson, who happened to be a Socialist.
Wilkinson wrote, “Editor Republican: I noticed an article in your last issue by H.P. Dawes in which he seems to refer to me as having written an article in regard to the action of the late ‘Inquisition,’ (note-Grand Jury) in which Mr. Dawes states that I knew the statements of such article to be untruthful. Now, I know, if the public is interested in this matter, that every statement made in such an article is true and I will prove them to be true.”
“The finding, as reported, shows on its face to be untruthful. Now I know, if the public is interested in this matter, that every statement made in such article is true and I will prove them to be true.”
“The finding, as reported, shows on its face to be personal and partial. The “Inquisition” had the records of the city before it; and in these records was the information that other members of the board of aldermen, besides Joe Payne, had been selling merchandise to the city while holding office. These books would also show that Mr. Dawes, while holding the office of City Collector, had violated the same law Mr. Payne is charged to have violated, by selling insurance to the city.”
“I have always regarded Mr. Dawes as a fairly good citizen; but have also always known him to be classed as a self-conceited (spelling and language preserved) Don-Quixotic-Butinsky-busy-body, who labored under the same insane delusion that the mores of the whole country rested upon his weak corporasity. This is a very unfortunate state of mind for anyone to fall into, and I cannot help thinking that even if Mr. Dawes should, at some time, be called to his long rest, the world would not immediately go to the demnition-bow-wows. The greatest regret I now have is that he did not think in time to have stopped the European Holocaust before it began. Respectfully, N.B. Wilkinson”
The issue was kicked back and forth in the press, leading Dawes to file a damage suit in November 1915 against Mayor Frank Sass and Councilman J.S. Payne for $10,000. The case dragged on through a change of venue into the summer of 1917, when a jury decided against Dawes. Judge W.N. Evans was one of the attorneys representing Franks Sass, builder of the brick block at the four-way in downtown Willow Springs.
Harlan Dawes died in Willow Springs in September 1925 at the age of seventy-eight. His wife, Sarah, died in 1929, four years later. Both were accompanied by their children to the family burial place in Postville, Iowa, to join their son Rollin, who had died at the age of two in 1879. Lena, still living in Willow Springs, died in the hospital in Springfield, Missouri, in 1948. Her remains were returned to Postville for burial in the family plot. Harlan’s remaining son Horace was cremated when he died in Springfield in 1965, where he had lived since leaving home in Willow Springs.
I like “Harl” Dawes, as he was known to his friends back in Postville. He sounds like an interesting and entertaining fellow to be around - maybe not too close.