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HISTORY OF FORT DODGE AND
WEBSTER COUNTY IOWA
By H. M. PRATT
ADVISORY BOARD
Hon. W. S. Kenyon Emory A. Rolfe Mrs. Jonathan P. Dolliver Webb Vincent Hal C. Fuller
Hon. O. M. Oleson
Mrs. John F. Duncombe
Dr. G. D. Hart D. S. Coughlan M. F. Healy C. B. Johnson
C. A. Roberts
I. B. Parks
C. V. Findlay
H. O. Baldwin
Mrs. C. B. Hepler
VOLUME I
CHICAGO THE PIONEER PUBLISHING COMPANY 1913
1
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 634725 ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN POUNDATIONS. R 1913
1
MR. AND MRS. H. M. PRATT
FORT DOOG. PRACT IVO
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPITY OF WEBSTER COUNTY. I
CHAPTER II 1
ON THE WAY TO IOW.1. 13
CHAPTER III
THE MOUND BUILDERS
23
CHAPTER IV
THE RED MAN IN IOWA 29
CHAPTER V
TIIE LOUISIANA PURCIIASE AND TERRITORIAL IOWA.
39
CHAPTER VI
THE COMING OF THE WHITE M.IN. 59
CHAPTER VII
ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF WEBSTER COUNTY. 7I
CHAPTER VIII
THE COUNTY ELECTIONS.
83
CHAPTER IX
WEBSTER COUNTY IN CIVIL WAR
93
CHAPTER X
WEBSTER COUNTY IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. I39
iii
iv
CONTENTS CHAPTER ȘI
REGULARS AND MILITLA
. 151
CHAPTER XII
THE MAYORS OF FORT DODGE 155
CHAPTER XIII
EARLY TRADES AND TRADERS.
165
CHAPTER XIV
FORT DODGE SCHOOLS. .... 175
CHAPTER AV
FORT DODGE CHURCHES 18I
CHAPTER XVI
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND PARKS
195
CHAPTER XVII
WOMAN AND HIER CLUBS. 201
CHAPTER XVIII
THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE AND EXPEDITION.
2II
CHAPTER XIX
BUILDING A RAILROAD. .... . 221
CHAPTER XX
TIIE COMING OF THE "CHIARLES ROGERS
225
CHAPTER XXI
HISTORY OF TIIE RIVER-LAND GRANT. ... 23I
CHAPTER XXII
TIIE CARDIFF GIANT. 239
CHAPTER XXIII
BREAKING PRAIRIE AND OTHER SKETCHES 245
V
CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIV
THE TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNS. 259
CHAPTER XXV
LEGISLATIVE, JUDICIAL AND CONGRESSIONAL HISTORY. 289
CHAPTER XXVI
ET CETERA
295
History of Webster County
CHAPTER I GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
BY JAMES H. LEES, ASSISTANT STATE GEOLOGIST INTRODUCTORY
This chapter aims to present briefly the history of the growth and develop- ment of Webster county's rock formations and surface features. In order to correctly understand the landscape of today we must know the forces which have been at work building up massive beds of rock and clay and gravel, those which have chiseled out the hills and the valleys as the artist carves his statue or molds his model, those which have made the crooked ways straight and the rough places plain, have cut down the hills and filled up the valleys. So we must go back, not to the beginning, indeed, but far back to the time when life had its beginnings, uncounted ages ago, and we shall find that even then the same forces and agents were at work which are today effective in giving our world its present form. The rivers carried to the oceans their burdens washed from the land, the winds did their work, mighty volcanoes poured out their floods of molten rock and under the seas were being laid down the foundations of the future continents. Nothing could be further from the truth than the current conception that the forms of nature which we see about us are fixed and unchangeable. Tennyson aptly and beautifully expresses the marvelous truth when he says :
"There rolls the deep where grew the tree, O earth what changes hast thou seen ! There where the long street roars, hath been The stillness of the central sea.
"The hills are shadows, and they flow From form to form and nothing stands ; They melt like mists, the solid lands, Like clouds they shape themselves and go."
So all through the centuries the lands have been changing their form while from their wastage have been builded new lands on the ocean floors.
1
HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
We know nothing of the results of this early world-building in Iowa. All the rocks which were then formed, whether by quiet deposition on ocean bottoms or by volcanic eruptions, are deeply buried and have never been revealed by the deepest searchings within the state. Since they are known elsewhere we know that Iowa must be built upon their ancient pediments.
GEOLOGY
Away off in the northwestern corner of Iowa there comes to the surface a very hard rock known to geologists as the Sioux quartzite, and usually, though incorrectly, called Sioux Falls granite. This same rock forms great cliffs and waterfalls at Sioux Falls, Luverne and Pipestone. It is the oldest rock exposed in Iowa and is a sandstone which has been made exceedingly hard by secondary cementation. It is known to extend entirely across the state, for it has been reached in several deep wells and comes to the surface in Wisconsin. In the off- shore waters of the old Algonkian ocean this sandstone gradually accumulated and then as the sea floor slowly rose above the water, during long ages this sand- stone, now hardened to quartzite, was attacked and eroded by all the powers of air and moisture. Again the sea encroached upon the land and buried it under a vast accumulation of sands which are known to us now as the Saint Croix sandstones. The accompanying diagram will serve to make clear the succession of strata as here described. Whether the entire area of the Sioux quartzite was covered is not known but if it was considerable areas must have been laid bare since. for in northwestern Iowa much of the succession as given in the chart is absent. For Webster county the succession is fairly complete, with the excep- tion of the Upper Devonian, Missouri and Cretaceous. This is well shown in the record of the deep well at Fort Dodge, which has a depth of 1.8271/2 feet and penetrates the sandstones of the Jordan to a depth of 59 feet.
The Saint Croix sandstones are Iowa's great source of supply for artesian waters although many of the deep wells draw their waters from higher beds. Another important water-bearing stratum is the Saint Peter sandstone. While not so thick as the Saint Croix it is very widespread and constant and therefore quite reliable.
It is not necessary to describe here all the succession of rock deposits and events in the geological history of our county. Suffice it to say that as age suc- ceeded age the rocky foundations of our area were built up beneath the sea. now far from shore and in clear quiet waters as when the Silurian limestones were formed, now nearer the lands, where the streams carried down their loads of silt and clay to form the beds of shale such as the Maquoketa, and occasionally the deposits tell of a land nearby whence came sands and gravels to form our sandstones. The seas of these days swarmed with life and the abundant fossil remains still give mute testimony to the multitude of species which lived and died in those far-away times. Just here it may be remarked that it is unsafe to judge the relative length of geologic periods by the relative space given in the chart. While this may serve to some extent as a guide there are too many other elements which enter to rely on this alone. The rapidity with which deposits accumulate varies so greatly with different types of material and under different circumstances and we cannot tell how much of the original deposit may have
$ -
CACEOLA
ENHer
INNEBAGSWORTH
HOWARD
KOSSUTH
GEOLOGICAL MAP OF IOWA
O BRIENT FAY
PALO ALTO
Napck
CHICKASAW
AY TON
CHEROKEE
BREMER
PLYMOUTH
BUENA VISTA
BUTLER
BUCHAN
BLACK HAWK
DE EL AWARE
-SAC
HAMILTON
MENTOR
CARROLL
DALLAS
JESPER
DOWES
JOHNSON
LEGEND.
Louis
CRETACEOUSE
PERMIAN
MISSOURI
LES WORK!
DES MOINES
MISSISSIPPIAND
DEVONIAN
SILURIAN
DAVIS
ORDOVICIAN CAMBRIAN
PROTEROZOIC
RI
NKLIN
POCAHONTAS
GHT
FIGURE I
APPANOOSE
DICKINSON
4/1111
SYSTEM
SERIES
FORMATION NAME
COLUMNAR SECTION
THICKNESS IN FEET.
CHARACTER OF ROCKS
Wisconsin
0-30 +
BOWLDER CLAY, PALE YELLOW VERY CALCAREOUS.
Peorian
lowan
0-30 +
BOWLDER CLAY. YELLOW, WITH VERY LARGE BOWLDERS.
QUATERNARY
PLEISTOCENE
Illinoian
0-100+
BOWLDER CLAY, YELLOW.
Yarmouth
0-400+
BOWLDER CLAY, BLUE, JOINTED, WITH INTERCALATEO STREAKS ANO POCKETS OF SAND AND GRAVEL.
Aftonian
0-40 +
PEAT & FOREST BEDS, SOIL BANDS, AQUEOUS GRAVELS
Nebraskan
0-30 +
BOWLDER CLAYS, DARK, FRIABLE.
Colorado
150
SHALES WITH SOFT LIMESTONES. IN PLACES CHALKY.
CRETA
CEOUS
UPPER CRETACEOUS
Dakota
100
SANDSTONES.
PER-
MIAN
Fort Dodge
20
GYPSUM.
Missouri
CARBONIFEROUS
St. Louis
100
LIMESTONE.SANDSTONE & MARLY SHALES.
MISSISSIPPIAN
Osage or Augusta
265
LARGELY CRINOIDAL LIMESTONE. WITH HEAVY BANDS OF CHERT, SOME SHALE .
Kinderhook
120
SHALE. SANDSTONE AND LIMESTONE , LIMESTONE IN PLACES POLITIC
UPPER DEVONIAN
State Quarry Lime Creek Sweetland Creek
(40) (120) (20)
LIMESTONE, MOSTLY BRACHIOPOO COQUINA MOSTLY SHALES SHALE
DEVONIAN
MIDDLE DEVONIAN
Wapsipinicon
60 - 75
LIMESTONES. SHALES. AND SHALY LIMESTONES.
SILURIAN
NIAGARAN
Hopkinton
220
DOLOMITE, VERY FOSSILIFEROUS IN PLACES.
CINCINNATIAN
Maquoketa
200
SHALE, SHALY LIMESTONES, AND, LOCALLY, BEDS OF DOLOMITE.
ORDOVICIAN
CANADIANI
Shakopee Prairie du New Richmond Chien
Oneota
150
DOLOMITE
Jordan
100
COARSE SANDSTONE
CAMBRIAN
POTSDAMIAN OR SARATOGAN
St. Croix
St. Lawrence
50
DOLOMITE MORE OR LESS ARENACEOUS.
Dresbach
150
SANDSTONE, WITH BANDS OF GLAUCONITE.
ALGON- KIAN
HURONIAN
Sioux
Quartzite
25
QUARTZITE.
MOHAWKIAN
Galena
340
DOLOMITE IN PLACES, IN PLACES UNALTERED LIMESTONES
Platteville
90
MARLY SHALES AND LIMESTONES.
St. Peter
100
SANDSTONE
80
DOLOMITE
20
SANDSTONE
LOCALLY DEVELOPED FEATURES EACH EVING UNCOMFORTABLY ON THE MIDDLE DEVONIAN
Cedar Valley
100
LIMESTONES. SHALY LIMESTONES. SOME DOLOMITE IN THE NORTHERN COUNTIES.
Gower
120
DOLOMITE, NOT VERY FOSSILIFEROUS. LE CLAIRE PHASE EXTENSIVELY CROSS - BEDDED.
PENNSYLVANIAN
Des Moines
20
RED SHALES AND SANDSTONES.
600
SHALES AND LIMESTONES.
SHALES AND SANDSTONES WITH SOME BEDS OF LIMESTONE.
750
SOIL, PEAT AND FOREST BEDS.
Kansan
SOIL. PEAT AND FOREST BEDS.
Sangamon
SOIL BAND
FIGURE II-GEOLOGIC SECTION OF THE STRATA OF IOWA
-
3
HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
been carried away. And so it is equally difficult to form any estimate of the length of time which has elapsed since the known rocks of Iowa began to be formed. The geologic record speaks of times when the sea left Webster county and retreated far away, perhaps to the south and west. The soft sandstones, shales and limestones were then etched and carved and carried away so that in many places deep valleys were cut in them, while in other localities scores and perhaps hundreds of feet of strata were removed entirely. Then again the seas over- spread the lands and filled up the valleys and covered the hills with their burden of sand or clay or limy ooze.
During the Devonian period the fishes experienced a marvelous development- and became the masters of the sea. Strange uncouth fellows were these Devon- ian fishes. Their modern descendants would probably disown them, unless it were some of the equally uncouth creatures which are occasionally dredged from the great ocean depths and which probably represent survivals of these ancient tribes. The bony fishes did not appear until after the Devonian and these primi- tive species had cartilaginous skeletons, like the modern sharks, and- many of them were armored with a hard coat of mail.
While the Devonian and earlier strata are doubtless present beneath the prairies of Webster county the oldest rock which is exposed within the county is the Saint Louis limestone. After the limestone of the Middle Devonian series had been laid down in the quiet waters of the Devonian sea the ocean retreated and for a long time much of Iowa was dry land, exposed to all the wearing activities of rain and atmosphere. Even while the shales and limestones of the Upper Devonian were forming there were probably. large land areas in Iowa. But in time the sea again transgressed upon the land and over its floor were laid the shales, sandstones and limestones of the Mississippian. After a long period of slow piling up of rocky beds the waters again abandoned our county and again did the streams and rains and winds do their work. How long these periods of land destruction were we can but hazard a guess. We know how slowly the elements wear away the solid rocks today, how little change there is in the landscape from year to year, even from generation to generation. We have no reason to believe that the processes and agencies of Nature were much differ- ent in those early days than they are today. Hence, we may feel sure that the period during which valleys scores and scores of feet in depth were cut into the Saint Louis limestone could not have been a short one.
It may be noted here that from the time of the Cambrian as shown on the chart the shore-line across lowa had been periodically retreating toward the southwest. In general this shore-line had a northwest-southeast extension and hence the strata of different ages today outcrop at the surface in long, rather narrow belts having a similar direction and exposing successively younger rocks toward the southwest. The rocks of Iowa have never been subjected to great movements and twistings and warpings as have those of the Rocky Mountain region, for instance. Hence, such irregularities as appear in their exposure and condition are due chiefly to erosion. As is to be expected the rocks have a slight general dip toward the southwest, that is, away from the old shore-line toward the open sea. But in western Iowa this dip is reversed, due largely to the influ- ence of the old Sioux island, the mass of quartzite centering about Sioux Falls.
4
HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
Hence Webster county is about at the center of a great trough, although this is not evident at the surface. The present topography is due to factors which affected the county long after these rocks were formed, as will be explained later.
After the long period of erosion described in the preceding paragraph there was ushered in a different series of events. Our knowledge leads us to believe that all the rocks formed before the close of the Saint Louis stage were of marine origin. But with the beginning of the next stage in Webster county and in Iowa conditions were changed. It seems probable that the surface of the land, in central Iowa at least, had been worn down to a low, level plain, only slightly above sea level, or else that crustal movements brought large areas into this condition. At any rate there were vast stretches of coastal swamps where plant life grew luxuriantly. These swamps may be likened to the Great Dismal Swamp of Vir- ginia or the Everglades of Florida. In the former of these especially, trees. ferns, and marsh-grasses grow, die and fall into the shallow water which covers much of the surface. This water prevents decay and hence the mat of vegetal remains grows from year to year and age to age. Just such conditions obtained in the times of which we are speaking-the Des Moines age, the period when the coal beds which form such an important part of Webster county's natural wealth were formed. We may imagine that after one of these marshes had been growing for some time until. possibly, many feet of peaty matter had accumu- lated, there was a slight change of level and the sea invaded the swamp and cov- ered the bed of peat with a layer of silt or perhaps of sand. As soon as this layer approached or rose to the surface of the water vegetation would again grow over it and there would be a repetition of the process. If long periods passed while plants were growing without clay or such earthy matter being brought in, there naturally would be formed a thick bed of pure peat. If changes occurred rapidly or streams washed in silt and clay the beds would be thin or impure. In this way. then, the coal beds of our county, and of other regions as well, were formed. The size of the old Carboniferous swamp measures the extent of the coal bed of today. Upon the length of time during which the plant remains accumulated depends the thickness of these stores of fuel. Several seams of coal occur in vertical succession, separated by layers of shale and sandstone. This is nicely shown by a composite section through the Lehigh coal seams which is given below.
Feet
Drift
I20
Shale
20
Coal, slate, six inches, Harper vein. o to
21/2
Sandstone and shale 15
Coal. Tyson seam 4
Sandstone and shale 30
Coal, Pretty seam 2-3
Shale
30
Coal, Big seam, four inches bone in center
312 to 41/2
Near Coalville the coal lies in three horizons the lowest of which is a cannel coal. The "Big Coal" of this region seems to have been laid down in the deserted
Otho
FIGURE III-MAP OF COALVILLE BASIN Coal Beds Shown in Black
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOP, LENOX AND TID N FO. NDATIONS.
5
HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
channel of an ancient river, as it is confined to a very narrow strip of which the center lies much lower and is thicker than the marginal portions. The can- nel coal has a somewhat lower fuel value than good bituminous coal, because it contains more gas and less carbon. It is very fine-grained and may have had a slightly different origin than the other coals.
Elsewhere in Iowa there is a still greater alternation of coal and shale, while in some parts of America the number of seams is astonishingly large. Thus in the Nova Scotia field there are seventy-six distinct seams, each one of which speaks of a repetition of the series of events outlined above. These conditions speak to us of a period when plant life flourished on the American continent. and elsewhere also, in such profusion as it had never reached before. Coal swamps covered thousands of square miles between Nova Scotia and Oklahoma. We need not think of Des Moines time as being a period of tropical climate, for the evidence points rather to a climate of moderate temperatures, considerable moisture and great uniformity both as regards seasons and areas. This is shown by the similarity of plant life of the period from Greenland to Brazil. -
Although the coal beds form only a small part of the strata of the Des Moines stage, or Lower Coal Measures, of Webster county, they are a very important part. The mining of the coal from these beds forms one of the county's impor- tant industries and indeed forms the basis of much of the industrial life of the community. Owing to its strategic position as the most northerly coal produc- ing area in the state, mining was early pursued in Webster county. The state census of 1862 credits the county with an output of 250 bushels and the federal census of 1870 showed that an output of 34,400 tons placed Webster as the fourth producing county in the state. The production has risen as high as 140,000 tons, which figure was reached in 1902. Since then there has been a decline due to the working out of the best seams. The output for 1910 was 49,973 tons valued at $111,720. The early settlers knew of the presence of coal and in 1870 Mr. J. I .. Platt, Hon. J. F. Duncombe and others opened the first shipping mine in the county. This was located on Holaday creek, and about three miles from the Dubuque and Sioux City, now the Illinois Central, railroad, with which it was connected by a tramway. Other mines were opened in the next few years and the building of other railroads gave an added impetus to the industry. Coalville, Kalo and Lehigh have been important districts from the beginning of operations until the present.
Following the deposition of the Des Moines beds came a time when the sea seems to have covered southwestern Iowa more continuously and the shales and limestones of the Missouri stage or Upper Coal Measures, were laid down. There are one or two thin seams of coal accompanying these beds, but they are not so important as are the coals of the Lower Coal Measures. We do not know that the Missouri sea ever covered Webster county and so this county in common with eastern and northern Iowa was doubtless a land surface, and as such was subjected to all the changes which the erosive forces of Nature could produce. That these forces were active is shown by the irregularity of the con- tact between the Des Moines and the overlying beds as will be described below.
It has been stated that the shore-lines of the ancient seas across Iowa were gradually retreating toward the southwest. The Des Moines ocean formed an
6
HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
exception to this as it overspread the most easterly known limit of the Saint Louis beds in Webster county and far to the southeast. The Missouri sea, how- ever, seems to have followed the rule, as we know of no beds of this age east of a line drawn, say, from Guthrie Center to Corydon. But when the sea again invaded lowa it far surpassed the bounds of the Missouri stage and indeed reached nearly to the present limits of the Des Moines beds. This was the. Per- mian ocean and the Permian period is of especial interest to us because only in Webster county are its strata known-namely the gypsum beds and their asso- ciated shales and sandstones. Permian strata may, of course, underlie the younger rocks of the northern and western counties, but their presence there has not been positively determined. The nearest known rocks of this age are in southeastern Nebraska and Kansas.
Gypsum beds like salt deposits indicate an arid climate. So we know that during Permian times the shallow ocean was very much reduced and that lagoons and lakes were formed in which the gypsum beds of Webster county, and of Texas and Oklahoma, and the salt and gypsum of Kansas accumulated. We may surmise that climatic conditions in Webster county were quite similar to those now existing in southwestern United States with the addition of this bitter lake from the waters of which gypsum was being precipitated. The lake extended in a northeast-southwest direction across the county, centering at Fort Dodge, and in it was formed a bed of remarkably pure gypsum varying from ten to thirty feet in thickness. Thin clay seams interbedded with the gyp- sum may indicate incursions of the sea, letting in ocean waters, from which were precipitated other layers of gypsum. Then finally there came a more extensive inundation, accompanied by the deposition of red shales and sandstones, which overlie the gypsum and are spread over a greater area than that covered by it.
This was not the first time that such conditions had existed in lowa, for in drilling the deep well at Greenwood Park. Des Moines, thin layers of gypsum were found in the Silurian rocks and during the year 1911 a bed varying in thickness up to eighteen feet was discovered in the Saint Louis limestone at Centerville in southeastern Iowa.
After the Permian there was another long time when Webster county was dry land. This is represented in the chart by the wavy line above the beds of the Fort Dodge stage. So far as now known all of Iowa was dry land during this period. Could we have seen our state during those days it would probably have presented a different aspect from that familiar to us today. Although tremendous changes were in progress elsewhere, as for instance the forming of the AAppalachian mountains in the east and the Ouachita mountains of Arkan- sas. there was but little movement of the earth's surface in our own area- simply an elevation sufficient to drain off the ocean. It is not likely that our present river systems had been developed at that time and so the land was drained by a system of streams which is now doubtless largely. if not entirely extinct. The plant life of the time was similar to that of the coal periods. Gigan- tic ferns, cone-bearers, and other allied genera formed the forests. There were 10 flowering plants nor grasses. These did not appear in America until long afterwards. The animals of this time resembled in their lower forms the older types but there was a gradual transition to more modern forms. One of the
N
GMP
00
CM
OM
St.L
FIGURE IV-CROSS SECTION NORTH AND SOUTH THROUGH THE GYPSUM AREA. ILLUSTRATING UNCONFORMITIES BETWEEN THE SAINT LOUIS LIMESTONE (ST. L), THE COAL MEASURES (C M). THE GYPSUM AND SANDSTONE (G), AND THE DRIFT. THE VERTICAL SCALE IS GREATLY EXAGGERATED.
-
.
7
HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
most notable features of this transition was the great development of true rep- tiles. So notable is this development that the period is known as the Age of Rep- tiles. The mammals and birds also began their rise during this time although they did not become prominent until later. We have no remains of the life of this period in lowa as there were no deposits formed in which these remains might be preserved. But that progress was taking place here as elsewhere there can be no doubt and hence the events and life forms mentioned form a vital part of Webster county's history.
In course of time there occurred one of the greatest transgressions of the sea over North America that is known in all geologic history. Just prior to this incursion the Dakota sandstone had been laid down in a series of extensive fresh-water lakes. Then the Great Plains were submerged and western Iowa suffered the same fate. The eastern shore-line was somewhere in the region of Webster county and probably some of the county formed part of the ocean floor. On this floor-the floor of the Upper Cretaceous sea-were laid down the chalky limestones and shales of the Colorado stage. Over the great plains the Dakota sandstone forms an artesian reservoir, and the chalks and shales of the Colorado are used in many places for the manufacture of Portland cement and clay wares.
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