The Daily Gate City

The Plaindealer says there is in the Sunday School room of the Presbyterian Church at Fort Madison, an old fashioned backless bench, which should be preserved by the State Society, as a specimen of Lee county antiquities. Twenty-seven years ago when Judge Russell came to Fort Madison to open a school, he found the school house unfurnished, and such a thing as a plank or a sawed board could not be had for love nor money. He hired a man to go to the woods and split out some puncheons, of which by inserting pegs or legs, he made an assortment of approved school furniture. The seat referred to is one of the original assortment.