1984 was an amazing time in Centerville.

But what about 1884?

CENTERVILLE 1884

The pillars of the community were four prominent men:

S. A. Anderson, known as the baron, who cleared 5,000 acres of timber west of Centerville to develop the largest beef operation in the state of Iowa. Though rich and admired, he was also known to be a womanizer and never far from a flask of bourbon. He was banned from entering the town of Mystic and protested by the Baptist Women’s League.

B. Harrington, Railroad Tycoon, built the crossings over the Charlton River to expand commerce all the way west to the Missouri River. He built his mansion to the south, in Numa, and donated the funds to build the first Methodist church there. His livestock railcars were essential to the success of S. Anderson’s cattle shipments to the stockyards of both Chicago and Kansas City. Though considered friends as well as business colleagues, Anderson and Harrington could often be found in a Numa tavern arguing over shipping costs and at one time the same woman.

The man that kept the peace between the two was R. Stufflebeem, banker and financier of both Anderson and Harrington, whose money traced all the way back to the nation’s capital with a close relationship to former President Rutherford B. Hayes. A notable occurrence that sent waves of gossip through the community, was a late evening when Anderson and Harrington were in such a heated exchange at the Numa tavern that Stufflebeem threw a bucket of water on them “to put the fire out,” as he explained.

The man who kept them all honest, or at least out of legal trouble, was B. Bushell Esquire. Not only was Bushell the most successful lawyer in Centerville, but he was also a decorated officer who served in the Union Army, wounded in the Battle of Chattanooga, and graduated summa cum laude from Drake University Law School. But when asked of his greatest achievement, he instantly replied, “Marrying the girl that Anderson and Harrington were fighting over.”

In the next episode of Centerville 1884, we learn about the storybook romance of Constable Howington and Lady Becky, after he saved her from a runaway buggy, and a flashback to the tavern argument of Baron Anderson and Tycoon Harrington.