Melody Parker’s Favorite Cedar Valley Stories of 2024
By Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa (TNS)
Each December, Courier reporters look back at their favorite stories of the past year. We ask them to pick their favorites: not necessarily the biggest stories of the year, just the ones they found most interesting.
Some are heart-warming. Some are amusing. Some are wistful. Here are some of Melody Parker’s favorite Cedar Valley stories of 2024. We hope you find all of the articles collected here to be interesting.
The man behind the Grout Museum
Henry W. Grout’s biography reads like a movie plot. His legacy is the Grout Museum of History and Science in downtown Waterloo, although his life story reveals an adventurous past.
Grout Collection 2
A photo of Henry Grout hangs on the wall at the Grout Museum of History and Science.
“When he died in 1932, Henry Grout was described as ‘heroic’ and ‘fearless.’ I thought it sounded like the sort of things that people say when they’re eulogizing someone,” said Nicholas Erickson, Grout Museum District registrar. “Turns out, he really was those things.”
Grout was a railroad worker and a lead miner in Colorado where he was shot at during a miner’s strike. He spent a dozen years as a traveling sewing machine salesman in the Dakota Territory. He also was one of Waterloo’s early movers and shakers. Born in 1858 on an East Waterloo Township farm, he became a successful businessman, real estate agent, financier, philanthropist and state legislator.
Cedar Bend Food 1
Kennel attendant Mia Wheeler scoops dog food to feed dogs at the Cedar Bend Humane Society on March 27 in Waterloo.
Cedar Bend’s need for feed is met indeed
Hungry dogs and cats at Cedar Bend Humane Society needed to eat, but the cupboard was nearly bare. As the shelter struggled to feed the 300-plus animals in its care in March, it sponsored a Spring into Action Pet Food Drive. After The Courier published a story about the shelter’s struggles, the response from the public was immediate and overwhelming, said Kristy Gardner, executive director.
“We were amazed, just blown away, and we are so thankful to our community. After the story came out, we literally had people all day, every day, bringing in food. Within a couple of days, we had so much food donated that we had to move it out of our lobby. We couldn’t open our front door,” she said.
The shelter received 10 to 12 pallets filled with donated 20-, 40- and 50-pound bags of dog and cat food.
Former Cedar Falls resident Dave Lipinski created a GoFundMe campaign. Lipinski and his wife, Suzy, pledged to match the donations above their initial personal donation, bringing the total gift to $1,790.
Grout Flag 1
Grout Museum Registrar Nicholas Erickson and Sgt. Wade B. Corell of the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment of the Iowa National Guard unfold a 90-year-old American flag from its storage box in March. The flag, gifted to the Grout Museum in 1960, is believed to be the first American flag carried ashore into the European Theater of Operations as the United States entered World War II.
A historic flag unfurled at Grout Museum
A nearly 90-year-old banner believed to be the first American flag carried ashore into the European theater as the United States entered World War II is housed at the Grout Museum.
The flag was gifted to the Grout Museum District in 1960 by Howard J. Rouse, a Waterloo Paper Company executive. Scrawled at the bottom of the donation letter are two sentences: “The national colors of the 133rd, 34th Division commanded by Col. Howard J. Rouse. The first regiment of the new A.E.F. to Europe WWII.”
Rouse commanded the 133rd Infantry Regiment of the 34th Infantry Division throughout the 1940s and was still commander when the 133rd became the first U.S. Army unit to be sent across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe during WWII.
Troops landed at the port of Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Jan. 26, 1942. In several LIFE magazine photographs and British newsreels that captured their arrival, the bullion-fringed America flag and the regiment’s colors are “plainly visible,” said Grout Museum Registrar Nicholas Erickson.
“Not many Waterloo residents are aware that our Guard unit right here in town was the first to go to World War II,” Erickson said.
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