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Brent Hegstrom

Brent Hegstrom
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During the summer of 1891, Perry Mayor Allen Breed and the Perry City Council decided to put in a waterworks system. On Aug. 4, 1891, the council sold $9,500 worth of municipal bonds to finance the construction. In the fall...
Perry's shopkeeping class -- the French call them the petite bourgeoisie -- has presented a varied and colorful appearance over the years, with piety, parsimony and profit seeking their chief motives for action in the marketplace. After declining steadily...
Before the railroad came through in 1869, there were a few small coal mines in the Angus area that sold coal to the settlers. At that time, there was a store owned by a big Swede by the name...
It was May 1938 when six state agents, S. R. Quealy, W. J. Fogarty, E. F. Brown, P. J. Gruger, J. J. DeRaad and H. H. Joy, joined Dallas County Sheriff Evan Burger and Deputy Sheriffs Ralph Grimm and...
Years ago there was a Chinese merchant by the name of Ar Shong who opened a store at First Street and Willis Avenue in the early 1890s. He had most anything that one would want to buy and was...
Back in the day, the main road from Perry to Minburn and southward came out on Otley Avenue to 12th Street and then turned south to Iowa Street, then east to 16th Street, then south for one mile and...
In 1899 there was a large two story structure a mile west of Perry called the finest and most up-to-date sorghum plant in Iowa. The mill owner, Carl Arnold, said the mill had the capacity 500 gallons a day....
In choosing a new route for the new railroad, the officials were talking of coming along the west side of the Raccoon River unless Spring Valley Township voted a tax for that purpose. One election -- some say say two...
Perry's first grist mill was built by William Otis and the Selby brothers in 1875 at a cost of $12,000. Now some say that Otis had been a pirate on the high seas before coming to Perry. At first the...
The badly decomposed remains of a murdered man were found Aug. 24, 1906, on the Rock Island right of way near Lucinda street. His skull was crushed, and he was dragged into the weeds where the body was left...