Editorial: Preserving History, Collaborations, Cooperation and Problem Solving.

 

BREAKING BREAD

No Man Is An Island

-John Donne

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

How do we grow a tree, how to reap the meal from the garden? How do we raise a family? How to we bring food to the table? How do we grow ourselves? How do we create anything without the hands of other beings? Are we always alone in our endeavors? None of what we do or create is done alone.  That's a hard lesson for many to learn, but it's a reality. Where history or the historic genre is concerned, it would not exist with cooperative people to bring it all together. Centralized and controlling organizations and individuals stifle the flow of information and stand in the way of new information and new stories, Irrational control of narratives and artifacts lay waste to research and healthy inquiry. Certain social media sites should display risk warnings when overzealous individuals with agendas attack people with threats, false accusations and disinformation are allowed to terrorize anyone asking simple questions, especially when the people asking the questions are engaged in true research. I welcome all inquiries and anyone who wishes to collaborate.

G.C. Stevens

                  

2700 Identified Carte de Visits of Iowa Civil War Soldiers By O.J. Fargo & Edited by G.C. Stevens

Identified photo courtesy of O.J. Fargo, Army of the Southwest.

O.J. Fargo Army of the Southwest, Photo by the author

LEGACY

I've only known O.J. Fargo for a short time, about three years to be exact. We became acquainted when I joined the Army of the Southwest (ASW), which is a civil war reenactment group based in Iowa. We both got into civil war reenacting around the same time in the 1990's. O'J. was one of the founding members of the ASW, and, like myself, he is an avid researcher.  At a recent event in Zearing Iowa, I saw O.J. had a laptop and folder with a cover that said something about locating peoples civil war ancestors, and he mentioned a project that he was working on to create a searchable database of Iowa civil war soldiers. He also mentioned something about legacy, I heard what he said, and I thought I knew exactly what he was talking about. I answered him in my own mind and didn't say it out loud, but in recent months I had been thinking the exact same thing. I didn't exactly understand the depth of what his project was about until he put out and additional email explaining what he had been working on. When I read his email, I sat up in my chair, because he went on to explain that he had compiled a database of approximately 2700 identified Cart de visit photos of civil war soldiers from Iowa units that served in the conflict. To the best of my knowledge, besides large, organized collections in various military museums and historical societies, this was quite the endeavor. 

"I have just finished another lengthy project to supplement my Iowa Civil War soldiers searchable database. Tilting at windmills is my specialty. I have 2700+ CDVs (Carte de Visits)/pictures of Iowa soldiers with at least 2 from each regiment That doesn’t make a dent in the 72,000+ that served but it is a one-of-a-kind collection. I thought that might be of interest to you as a curiosity. I can call them up alphabetically or by regiment. Coupled with the database there could also be specialty searches e. g. everyone who was wounded in the 4th Iowa, those born in Denmark etc. All of the 2000+ photos are identified and matched to my searchable database. I can tell someone everything Civil War-ish about each person in the picture. 

Attached are 3 pictures I just have handy. Two are labeled the third one is Amos Rawley of the 4th Cavalry. He is a relative of Mike Rowley who didn’t know he existed until I sent him the picture." 

-O.J. Fargo 

ASW

Amos Rawley of the 4th Cavalry

Hammer, Horseshoe and Invention, The Story of an Iowa Renaissance Man

MATTHEW EDEL's 

BLACKSMITH SHOP 

                                 

The sign points the way to Edel's Blacksmith Shop in Haverhill Iowa. Photo by the author

The stories of the true west aren't just about lawman and outlaws. The west could have never been tamed without the steel and grit of hard work and innovation.

-G.C. Stevens

                    HAVERHILL IOWA

On a bright and fair summer day, I took an Iowa road less traveled. I exited the black top and hit the gravel road. I heard my wives voice in my head, say "roll up the windows, or dust will get in the truck, this is Iowa," I heeded the voice, hit the button and as the window slid up, I left a dirty contrail behind me, heading into the Kelly-green hills of a summertime Iowa. I was looking for a small town in Central Iowa called Haverhill. I had seen an informational sign on highway 330 multiple times over the years indicating that there was a historic blacksmiths shop somewhere in the area. I had traveled this route many times, but today, I felt compelled to finally take a look at what was out there. As I tracked the GPS on my phone, I suddenly found myself the small, quaint historic town of Haverhill Iowa. Upon entering Haverhill, I was greeted by rolling cornfields, old buildings and a prominent church steeple, which dominated the landscape. The surroundings were serene and beautiful. I pulled up across the street from old blacksmith's shop which was an old period building with faded wooded siding and a wooden shingle roof. I noticed that the door was open, so I walked in and saw that there was a man sitting on a chair. He greeted me and welcomed me to the Matthew Edel's blacksmith shop. I immediately noticed that this place was not a recreation, but the real thing. It glowed with the patina of days gone by. There was no flooring, only a dirt floor, rusty horseshoes hung from the ceiling, tools still laid where they were left back in 1940 when the doors were locked and the smell of metal and must hung in the air. My tour guide Pat Kopsa guided me through every inch of the Mathew Edel's world and showed me the fruits of his labor. During the tour it became apparent that Matthew Edel was a resourceful innovator, who served the farming community well during his life. The things that he created were carefully left in place for all to see, hand made pliers, horseshoes, gardening tools, and self styled tools invented by Matthew for use on local farms were all present.

                            Matthew Edel & Family: Photo courtesy of the Edel historic site

His hands forged steal, the callus and blackened hands that swung the hammer, the man who toils in the forge, purveyor of goods and services, blacksmith, wheelwright, Ferrier, Inventor and jack of all trades, a rural renaissance man. Strong, resourceful, proud. That was Matthew Edel.

-G.C. Stevens

  Edel Blackmith shop, built 1883  Photo by the author

Matthews was an immigrant from Germany, who settled in Haverhill in 1883 where he built this shop and the house behind on a half-city block. Edel was an entrepreneur, operating a successful business and manufacturer operation.  His hands forged steal: The callus and blackened hands that swung the hammer, a man who toiled in the forge, purveyor of goods and services, blacksmith, wheelwright, Ferrier, Inventor and jack of all trades, a rural renaissance man who was strong, resourceful, proud. That was Matthew Edel. During World War I, Edel also added an automobile service garage to the west end of the blacksmith shop. When Edel died in 1940, his family closed the blacksmith shop and left it intact but idle until the Edel family donated it to the state of Iowa in 1986. It remains a rare example of an authentic 19th-century blacksmith shop. A new building to the west is a working blacksmith shop constructed in 1996 with the help of volunteer blacksmiths. The State Historical Society of Iowa owns and manages the site which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

                            

 Tour Guide: Pat Kopsa gave me a highly detailed and informative tour of the Edel Blacksmith shop and property. Photo by the author.

DUSTY TRAILS OF THE OLD WEST BOOKS

Monuments and plaques greet visitors at the front door

Photos by the author

Tools of all kinds and metal parts lay in organized sections

throughout the shop, Photo by the author

The original foot operated bellows which still works hangs from the ceiling

above the forge photo by the author

The original forge which was eventually converted with an electric blower when electricity came to Haverhill Iowa

110th Meskwaki Pow Wow Tama Iowa: Veterans Day 2026

 

Photo cover from the 2026 Meskwaki Pow Wow program.

2026 Meskwaki Pow Wow

VETERANS DAY!

It was a great honor to take part in the 2026 110th Meskwaki Pow Wow Grand Entry. At 1:00 PM, Veterans from the different branches of service formed you and escorted the color guard of the Robert Morgan Post 701 Of the American Legion, onto the Pow Wow grounds and danced to the beat of the drums and song. 

The Color Guard Makes the Grand Entry, Photo by Vicki Stevens

All photos by the author unless otherwise stated.

Frontier Photographers: C.M. Flanders: By G.C. Stevens

 

All photos are from the authors collection

Photo collecting is like another form of archaeology, in that some photos have their own type of cuneiform etched into them by the Photographic Artists who created them. If we are lucky, some of these artifacts have the names of the subjects in the photo written on the back. If we're really lucky, additional information could also appears on the back of the photo if another person, such as a relative took some due diligence to record more data on the photo. Though in most cases the antique photos are as blank as the face of the sphinx in Egypt, and all we are left with is the faces of the person(s), who sat for the picture. But luckily many cabinet cards bare the names, logos and artworks of the photographers and the companies who employed them embossed on the front of each photo, and many of them are from the early days of the frontier (1860's-1890s) Photographers. Author, Carl Mautz, captured the names and the essence of the frontier "Shadow Catchers" in his book, "Biographies of Western Photographers". One of the Photographers listed was Charles M. Flanders, who was active in Corydon Iowa from 1889-1892. This towns name conjures up images of outlaws because eighteen years prior in 1871, the famed outlaw Jesse James had robbed the Ocobock Bank in Corydon, as I looked at the pictures, I wonder if any of the people in the in the photos below were old enough to remember when that happened? But alas... We may never know.

CM Flanders:

Name appears in the book "Biographies of Western Photographer", by Carl Mautz (Pg# 225)

Flanders, Charles M. 

Flanders had a studio in Glenwood, Mills County, in the 1890s. NSA reports a single view seen of a group of women posed by piano in studio. Burgess lists Humeston (1887–1892), Corydon (1889–1892), and Glenwood (1895–1897) 

ref  IOWA STEREOGRAPHS 

LIBRARY & ARCHIVES RESEARCH CENTERS 

(515)281-6200

History.Research@iowa.

Jesse James Robbery Corydon Robbery

Member 

102084 Visitors, a Major Milestone! By G.C. Stevens

 

                                               

 ANOTHER MILESTONE! 

The Central States Lawman and                Outlaw Historic Association blog, breaking records!

 102084 visitors!

I'm very proud of the CSL&OHA blog and what we have accomplished here! The success here was easy, 

because it's a labor of love and collaboration with many other writers, artists, genealogists and reenactors.

Central States, Lawman and Outlaws Historic Association: Dusty Trails Books

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The Secret Army of Historians: By G.C. Stevens

 

Union Spy at Camp Griffin 1861, Photo Courtesy of the Library of Congress

It's in the dark of the wee hours of the morning as the photos and clues are laid out on the table. The fingers are flying about the keyboard and arrangements are made to gather more information. Another lead is found, another historic society contacted, another state historical library queried, another document is in the mail, another page in the book has been written. The secret/not so secret agents of historic preservation and truth are on the prowl. Who are theses brave and diligent fools who dare operate outside the confines of the paid and controlled gatekeepers of history? 

There is a cadre of legendary men and women who test the boundaries of narratives, who seeks the truth in great detail, they stand against canned knowledge of grand opinionated diplomas to dig out the truth of family and local history. They are unpaid and sometimes unloved and even threatened because their bravery. They work against the current forces of evil, as the storm rolls in an attempt to crush their spirit's, but these hero's cannot be deterred.  They are bloodlines of their ancestors, the keepers of their family history, the Indiana Jones of their time. They possess hard drives of digital information and possess an attic full of documents and photos.  Theses people come from all walks of life, they are living historians, genealogists, writers and average everyday people, who's mission comes from the heart.

-G.C. Stevens

Zearing Iowa Event 2026 Photos: G.C. Stevens

 

ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST

Zearing Iowa Event 2026

Unless otherwise stated, all photos are by the author/Photographer

G.C. Stevens

Photo by Elaine Fargo