Iowa Heritage Illustrated

Macbride, Thomas

.fid
*, . • i
r
\Y1
¿'ti
■ -•»01 •v
-. • \
.'•r. •
\\t vT ’¿1 i. ' .  > i N
\\ wStsa '
§|i
LT vs
$
C* afcye65>r«jM >. s/>> wrft“wy v- i
>£9f%|
- •
V  :* • T?
f
m ,
K J \
•■M
v */♦
iW-’
• * ■c' yj-, -7• f \  . • . •
.»'»■ '•■ V U<TN\•V*v-• : . *' r,
ii.y.
v* %
W#J
&
H U
lrt¥»W
7 Vi! t 
t f t  ••
>
IIV]
W?fi
>
J 7
Th
trlPI t
If
/ 1,7 —
/ 7 /
L (L  l_ t
LUnZ
f  L L C i l
Okoboji, July 23 — 04
Dear Hattie — Agreeable to our plans we came 
here Friday night. Yesterday I intended to drive out 
but the day was hot and the ways were dusty so I 
[stayed] in the shade and did some necessary writing. 
The work I have done has been pleasant work so far. 
The country roads in Osceola Co. are little travelled 
at this season and lead straight for the cardinal points 
through acres of grain and grass. It has been simply a 
long pleasant drive in finest weather. Today is Sun-
110 x /  i f  i
I
 day and I sit beneath the shelter of a
clump of bur-oaks, just such as shaded 
20 years ago the well in your old home 
yard. Here are the little bur-oaks, thick, 
hundreds of them, and the out look is 
over Okoboji lake, the prettiest little 
lake I ever saw. We catch a breath from 
it now and then which makes the day 
endurable. And at night, when the sun 
is gone the lake takes matters into its 
own hands and laps its shores into cool­
ness most delightful. This it is makes 
this a summer resort — for hundreds 
of people and they're here. There must 
be a hundred little cottages among the 
trees around the wooded shores of this 
beautiful lake. People are here from all 
Iowa towns, they bring the [hired] girl 
and live here. Then the Inn takes care 
of those who are cottageless. I should 
have gone to the inn I suppose but 
there are too many people there, for 
one thing, and there is no livery there 
for another thing. It would be a very 
inconvenient base for my operations. 
Where then am I? Well I am at the house 
of an old pioneer, Roderick Smith. The 
Smith bros. keep cottages for people 
like me. Simply a farm-house is here 
with scattering rooms thrown strangely 
together. Philip and I have room and 
bed together. When I lie down I look out 
through the open door, down past the 
bur-oaks and over the bluegrass sod to 
the silver path across the lake where a 
harvest moon already riding low seems 
to fill all the horizon with its metallic 
splendor — but — I go asleep! Philip 
sleeps as never before and eats! — you 
would be surprised — We had for Sun­
day dinner Roast beef, beans (kind P. likes) potatoes, 
cabbage, ripe currants, pudding, apple-pie. Well P. 
ate it all and called for more beans! such a bov — Hej
was in swimming yesterday, but this is no place for 
a boy to learn the art. Like the Iowa river dangerous; 
gets deep too soon. One steps out beyond his depth 
unwittingly. I should say that the Smith's have rooms 
here for 20 or 30 people. P. and I are the only board­
ers. ... The rates here are $1.50 per diem for P. and me. 
You and Jean would enjoy it if you could entertain
yourselves. There is no body around. You could sail 
the lake or walk among the trees or by the cottages, but 
there is absolutely nothing but what you bring along.
I am going to I.C. [Iowa City] next Monday or Tues­
day and if you and J. would come up Saturday you 
could keep P. company until I could get back, Friday 
morning. Then we might spend a week or so here at 
comparatively small cost, but if you would enjoy it, 
you should bring a chosen party and rent a cottage. It is 
ideal for the student or the man who seeks quiet, rest. 
But if you wish to be "in the swim" you must go to 
the inn and attend the dances etc. — Society is in full
J
blast a mile hence but 'neath the bur-oak trees here is 
silent (Browning). Beetles crawl undisturbed content­
edly about even across my paper, [occasionally] an
Thomas Macbnde, 1928
old turkey comes along leading her half-grown flock, 
but even she suspends the voice of maternal cheer or 
chiding in this quiet grove. Philip has a book which 
gives political information galore. Just now he is find­
ing the population of each [county seat] town — he 
knows most of them and the county to [which] each 
belongs. I will write you again the last of the week 
and tell you what rates you may expect here and 
you can think about the thing meanwhile. The fare is 
good, the beds & linen scrupulously clean. So far as I 
can see, everything all right but plain, old-fashioned 
— It is well worth any person's while to see this place 
and to escape the hot nights which follow in Iowa C. 
hot days. I fancy today in I. C. is simply unendurable.
I trust the City has not yet ploughed out all my trees 
as it threatened to do. but I am not going to cry if the 
worst comes — Philip and I send all love to you & J.



English

A Hundred Little Cottages

Dykstra, Robert R

Race, Courage, and Discipline in Iowa's Heroic Age

Above and Beyond the Call of Duty: Iowa's Medal of Honor Recipients

Black, Dennis

Courage and Conduct: Francis J. Herron

Liepa, John

Baseball Card Images of Iowa's Hall of Famers

Town Teams

Morain, Tom

Reading the Past:  Splendid Solutions: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio

Mitchell, Robert B

Untamed Greenbacker: James Baird Weaver

Johnson, Bill

Baptized by the Blood of Many a Brave Fellow: The Battle Flag of the 9th Iowa Infantry

Iowa Heritage Illustrated, vol.87 no.2, Summer 2006