The next establishment north was the Martin Reiser Bakery. His wife Maria died in 1903 and he then married the Widow Bauer in 1904. The announcement of the nuptials in the paper stated that married life was nothing new to either of them. This was the third marriage for Mr. Reiser and the fourth for the new Mrs. Following Martin’s demise about a year later, “Ma” Reiser, as she was known, operated a restaurant and according to old rumors, offered a sort of brothel service but possibly is was as the good “Father Esser” said, maybe it was rooms for tough characters. “Ma” was depicted by a long related tale as having had this encounter with a local individual that later told: “She was clinching a coffee grinder between her knees and attempting to grind coffee beans. The grinder’s cogs was completely worn out and refusing to grind. An onlooker commented on the situation to which Ma alledgedly retorted: “If you had been between my legs as much as this thing has, you’d be worn out too.”
Not all illicit activities was kept on Battle Row. A house, still standing at the corner of Jefferson & Spring in old Clabbertown (the south part of Cole Camp) was reported to be a house of ill repute, complete with an escape door for customers in danger of being discovered where they shouldn’t be.
I doubt that “Ma” was totally responsible for inspiring the City Board to pass an ordinance, against conducting bawdy houses in Cole Camp and against any female person who would ply the vocation of prostitute. Any man seen in the company of any notorious prostitute would be fined not less than five dollars.
Battle Row was also littered with beer and whiskey bottles and the saving grace of that situation was the small boys that gathered them up and recycled them for two cents each. The local editor railed against the conditions and was greatly disturbed that Cole Camp was described as “the dirtiest town.” The solid citizens of the municipality avoided the area, kept to themselves, and continued with attending church and conducting music programs, the Chautauqua and other cultural pursuits. The Courier editor’s written protests, finally earned him a “thumping” by one of the miscreants, but did not deter him from reporting the misdeeds of the seedy side of the town.
The Railroad Restaurant was closed down for selling liquor without a license and G.W. McKinney was fined for being open on Sunday. A little man dubbed “Shorty” had long been the target of many town jokesters. Shorty was running an errand for his construction boss when the bullies resumed their cruel game.
Shorty snapped and began running up and down the street swearing in a loud voice and attacking his tormentors with rocks and clubs. Officer Fredericks, a deputy for the town Marshal, finally subdued him and took him before Judge Schwald who fined him for disturbing the peace.
More than once a shooting spree resulted in the law needing to intervene. The bartender of the Schuman & Bohling Saloon ducked behind the bar and sprinted out the back door to avoid flying bullets aimed at him by a patron.
Sometimes local citizens were on the verge of taking the law into their own hands when Marshal Houser and his men intervened. One worker shot another in the Schuman & Bohling Saloon and the gunman’s arrest was all that saved him from a lynch mob. A boarding house keeper’s young daughter had been associating with some of the men from the construction gangs. The irate father armed himself and started toward one of the construction camps but was headed off by some of his friends.
All this sounds like the Wild West and during the construction period it was, but eventually the tracks were completed in the Cole Camp area and the gangs moved on, leaving a transportation system that not only benefited local business but put dollars in the tax coffers.
Benton County Assessor records showed the appraised value of the Rock Island tracks at $140,500. This was in 1905 and the depots and stock yards had not been completed in time for that year. As a side note, the little Sedalia/Warsaw line had a valuation of $127,000. A definite boost to the entire county from the railroads.
