It’s Kickback Column season

This could be called a Kickback Column.

It’s the dog days of summer, time for August vacations. This isn’t exactly a vacation column, but it certainly doesn’t require a lot of thought either by author or reader.

You may very well be on vacation while you’re reading it. So it’s a light load for both of us.
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It was common across the Midwest during early settlement for small towns to spring up, struggle for a few years, then fade away.

Such was the case in Greene County, where a number of villages and pre-village settlements fought for survival from 1855 to 1891 or so before their disappearance.

In 1930, the State Historical Society asked B.F. Osborn of Rippey to compile information about those early villages. Osborn asked The Bee to request recollections from early day settlers, and they responded with the following:

• Cedar Creek in central Cedar Township, northwest Greene County. A post office existed from 1869 to 1891.

• Green Castle in southwestern Washington Township, southeastern Greene County, near the Raccoon River, shown on maps from 1857 to 1862.

• Greenops near central Kendrick Township north of Scranton, shown on maps from 1855 to 1857.

• Greys in central Cedar Township, shown on maps in 1868 and 1869.

• Havanna in northwestern Kendrick Township near the Raccoon River, shown on maps from 1857 to 1862.

• Kendrick near central Kendrick Township, with a post office from 1863 to 1867.

• Morefield, listed in the U.S. Official Register of 1853 as a post office in the county, but not found on maps of the period.

• Northville in south Cedar Township, with a post office from 1865 to 1881.

• Paduca in southeastern Washington Township near the Raccoon River, shown on maps from 1857 to 1868.

• Eureka west of Jefferson.

• Forbes Station just south of Farlin.

The original site of Jefferson was on Hardin Creek, which runs east of town; the town was originally called New Jefferson because another “Jefferson” existed for a few early years in Dubuque County.

Rippey was originally four miles west of its present location; the construction of the north-south rail line occasioned relocation of the town. Scranton’s post office was called “Scranton City” from 1880 to 1889.

No one now alive can confirm from personal knowledge any recollections of these extinct communities, but it would be interesting if anyone has such data from their parents or other relatives.
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My dad, Fred Morain, who preceded me at the Bee and Herald from 1937 to 1976, continued to write a weekly column, “Cogitations of an Old Codger,” for 25 years or so after he retired. He was also pleased when readers sent him material for the column.

Dorothy Bowley, a 1927 graduate of Jefferson High School, provided the following musings about aging in 1987 from her home in Alhambra, Calif. I used to laugh indulgently at such stuff; today it has more meaning.

• Everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work.

• The gleam in your eye is from the sun hitting your bifocals.

• You feel like the night before and you haven’t been anywhere.

• Your little black book contains only names ending in M.D.

• You get winded playing cards.

• Your children begin to look middle aged.

• You know all the answers, but no one asks you the questions.

• You look forward to a dull evening.

• You need glasses to find your glasses.

• You sit in a rocking chair and can’t get it going.

• Your knees buckle but your belt won’t.

• Your back goes out more than you do.

• You have too much room in the house and not enough in the medicine chest.

• You sink your teeth in a steak and they stay there.
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I watched the two-hour Voters First Forum on C-Span Monday evening.

From New Hampshire, it featured 14 of the 17 Republican candidates for president. My personal judgment of who was the most persuasive and knowledgeable:

1st, Lindsey Graham

2nd, John Kasich

3rd, Ben Carson

4th, Marco Rubio

5th, Jeb Bush

6th-14th, the rest of the field

If you watched, you probably have your own order of finish. If you’re interested, you can find it on the Internet.