Iowa Items

A child of Mr. John Loveless, of Marion county, was burned to death on the 31st ult. The mother went to a neighbor’s house a short distance off, leaving her two children at home. The eldest child, it is supposed, caught fire in its clothes, and started to where its mother had gone, and was found lying near the road with its clothes consumed and its body burned to a crisp.

Mr. George W. P. Bowman, writing to the McGregor Times, advocates the building of a horse railroad from McGregor westward. He estimates the cost at $5,000 a mile, including station-houses, one car to the mile, wells, &c., all ready for the receipt of freight. He estimates the annual expence [sic] on a road of 100 miles at $10,000, besides interest at 7 per cent on original cost, amounting to $35,000; and receipts on a freight business of 4,000,000 bushels of grain, and smaller items, exclusive of passengers, at $110,000. There is matter for serious consideration in his suggestion.

In the recent city election at Lyons there was a tie, on the Mayor. The same occurrence happened at Anamosa.

Nelson Sutherland, who murdered John Sparks, in Delaware county, last November, has been sentenced to eleven years confinement in the [penitentiary]. He has been sent to Fort Madison.

John W. Borland, of Johnson county, formerly a teacher in the Normal department of the State University, died recently at his residence.

Elias Fidler of Oskaloosa, was bitten by a rabid dog in February, and died of Hydrophobia on the 7th day of this month. He lingered with the disease three days before he died. He was a German, and left a family.

Brigadier General Dodge is now in St. Louis where he is suffering more than was anticipated from the wounds he received at Pea Ridge. He will remain at St. Louis until he recuperates.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, April 19, 1862, p. 2