116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Taking pictures, seducing bees
2 Cedar Rapids men knew what to do in 1897
Louis Horsky was well known in Cedar Rapids in the 1890s. He owned a newspaper and cigar stand where local men would gather in the evenings to talk baseball.
He also was a veteran firefighter of the First Ward hose company, using a filigreed silver trumpet to bark orders during fires.
One man who rarely missed stopping by to see Horsky for a few minutes every day was Alphonse Franchere, co-owner of The Fair department store at 208-226 First Ave. SE.
Franchere was a baseball enthusiast who built Athletic Park at the corner of 10th Street and C Avenue NW. The park lasted for 12 seasons, from 1896 to 1909.
He also liked to go hunting in the unsettled countryside around Cedar Rapids, which had a population of 18,000 in 1890.
Taking pictures
Another man who liked hunting outside the city was Sam Houx, an early and prolific amateur photographer.
Houx took myriad photos in and around Cedar Rapids in the 1890s, at a time when not many people had a camera.
One of his photos in 1896 showed the new baseball park Franchere built in northwest Cedar Rapids. He also took portraits of the 1890s baseball teams in the city.
An Aug. 11, 1896, Gazette news item reported Houx was on a railroad excursion to Waterloo. “He had with him his Kodak and, besides taking a number of views on the Cedar River, took several groups of the picnickers.”
Two of Houx’s photos — of the day bees descended on Cedar Rapids — showed up in an old envelope in The Gazette’s archives.
Bee photos
Houx took the photos June 18, 1897, in downtown Cedar Rapids, the day bees were swarming high above the Grand Hotel, 302 First Ave. SE.
Three electric street cars met at First Avenue and Second Street SE. Observers thought the clanging of the cars brought the swarm of bees down into the crowd on the street, causing some panic.
Horsky, who knew bees don’t sting when they are swarming, found a small tree branch and held it steady in front of him as the bees circled around. Eventually, a few bees alighted on the branch. Then more came. After about an hour, the branch was covered with bees.
Horsky gently placed the branch in a cracker box. His hand was still covered with bees when he placed a lid on the box. He wasn’t stung.
Houx caught the “bee whisperer” on film. One photo shows Horsky holding the branch to attract the bees. The other shows him putting the branch into a cracker box, with an assist from Gazette Editor Fred Faulkes.
The next day, a mischievous “for sale” ad ran in The Gazette: “A fine swarm of bees for the benefit of the Home for the Friendless. Call at Gazette office or on Louis Horsky, corner Fifth Street and A Avenue.”
Early death
Horsky died of “a severe attack of tonsillitis, from which he suffered intensely for some time,” according to the Aug. 27, 1900, Gazette. He was 44.
He left behind his wife, Helen, and five daughters, Lillian, Libbie, Helen, Bess and Minnie. His funeral was held at the family home at 119 Fifth St. NE.
As for Roux, the photographer, he left Cedar Rapids in 1898 to run a mercantile store in Jerome, in south-central Iowa, his wife Effie’s hometown.
He returned to the city in 1902 because of ill health, but he lived another three decades, dying in November 1934 of a heart attack while shoveling snow in front of his Third Avenue SW home. He was 77.
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