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PLOWED FIRST FURROW HERE ["Ottawa Herald," 4 Oct 1915, page 1] The man who put the first plow into the soil of Ottawa was in the city today. He is James Beatty of Cedar Rapids, Ia., who with his brother, the late Adam Beatty located in Ottawa when it was only a headquarters for the Ottawa Indian reservation. This was on the lot at the southeast corner of First and Locust street where the Beatty brothers built a house in 1864. With the influx of white men the Beatty brothers erected a saw mill, the first here, on a site just west of the present residence of Lewis Hashman, Elm and Pontiac. Their lumber, mainly oak and walnut, went into the construction of the houses of those early settlers, a number of which remain. Some of the Beatty lumber is in the house owned by E. Sands, 210 Locust that was built by the late George S. Holt, and there is much of it in the Paramore residence at Second and Locust. In this residence the present floor of one room is of walnut unplaned, there being no facilities for planing in those days. The Beattys also furnished the native lumber for the house built by the late J. H. Whetstone, 104 North Locust now occupied by C. H. Lundberg, and supplied all of the oak and walnut in the construction of the old jail that was in service within a few years. James Beatty personally did the work of stringing the cables on the old suspension bridge across the river. Mr. Beatty has been visiting friends at Richmond and Harris. He was accompanied here
today by J. W. Young of Harris. This afternoon he went to Chippewa Hills to visit his
co-worker in the saw mill of early days, James Elliott. Mr. Beatty is 81 years of age. |
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