USA > Iowa > Fayette County > The history of Fayette County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 1
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977.7 462 Ja
THE
HISTORY
OF
FAYETTE COUNTY,
IOWA,
CONTAINING
A history of the County, its Cities, Buuns, &er.,
A Biographical Directory of its Citizens, War Record of its Vol- unteers in the late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics, Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, His- tory of the Northwest, History of Iowa, Map ., of Fayette County, Constitution of the ,
United States, Miscellaneous
Matters, &c.
7
0
...
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C
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1 222315 .
1
ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO : WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, SUCCESSORS TO H. F. KETT & CO. 1878.
-
7
5
Fr
Entered. according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY.
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. D. (.
ulver Dage Doyne 22. PRINTERS 18 &120 MONROE ST. CHICAGO O
.
PREFACE.
Less than half a century has rolled into eternity since the Indian title to any portion of the soil of Iowa was extinguished, and the Black Hawk Purchase permitted the resistless tide of emigration westward to flow across the Mississippi, and only thirty years ago the Winnebagoes reluctantly left their Iowa Reserve, a portion of which was the northern part of Fayette County. Less than forty years have elapsed since the adventurous WILCOX built the first rude log cabin in the valley of the Volga, and the first brave and hardy pioneers settled on the beautiful prairies of Fayette. But these fleeting years have been replete with eventful changes-of history that it has been the purpose of this work to gather, arrange and preserve for transmission to posterity as one of the almost countless chapters in the annals of this great country.
The task has been an arduous and delicately responsible one. Some years had passed after the first settlement by WILCOX, CULVER, BEATTY, ORREAR, BROWN, the. HENS- LEYS, and others, before any written records were made; indeed, before the northern part of the county was open to settlement, and of those who settled on the Black Hawk Pur- chase in Fayette prior to 1845, only two remain to tell the story of their privations. The burning of the Court House in 1872, by which many valuable records were destroyed, has very materially added to our labor, and the compilers have been forced to depend upon the remembrances of the early settlers for many of the incidents recorded in the following pages. But memories fail with the accumulating burdens of years, and events that were vividly recalled ten or fifteen years ago are now so nearly forgotten that they return with difficulty at the call of the historian.
In the absence of written records, it has often occurred that different individuals have given sincere and honest, but, nevertheless, conflicting versions of the same events, and it has been a task of great delicacy to harmonize these conflicting statements. This work has been done with much care and discrimination, with the sole purpose of arriving at the truth. How well this task has been performed the intelligent reader must judge. It will be strange, indeed, if in the multiplicity of names, dates and events no errors nor omissions shall be detected. The compilers do not dare hope that, in all its numerous and varied details, this work is absolutely correct, nor is it to be expected that it is beyond criticism, but it is hoped and believed that it will be found measurably correct and gen- erally accurate and reliable. Unwearied and studious care has been constantly exercised in its preparation in the hope of making a standard work of reference, as well as a vol- ume of interest to the general reader.
Such as it shall be found, however, our work is done, our offering completed, and it remains for us to tender our grateful acknowledgments to the people of Fayette County for the liberal patronage that has enabled us to present them with this volume, and for the courtesy and kindness, without exception, extended to our representatives, to whom has been entrusted the work of collecting and arranging the historical record herein pre-
iv
PREFACE.
served to that posterity who, in the not far distant future, are to take the places of the fathers and mothers of to-day, so many of whose names are honorably recorded in the following pages.
Particularly do we desire to express our warmest thanks to those citizens who have so freely and so generously furnished so much valuable information, without whose aid this history of Fayette County could not have been so complete and accurate as it is hoped it will be found to be. To mention them all by name would require too much space; to mention only a part of them would be invidious. To all of them-to the county offi- cers who have so courteously and kindly aided us and placed the official records of the county at our disposal-to the press of the county who have so generously afforded us free access to their files-to the ministers and official representatives of the churches, lodges and societies-to township officers and school teachers, this paragraph of grateful appreciation and thanks is respectfully dedicated. We are also under obligations to Hon. T. W. BURDICK, M. C .; P. J. QUIGLEY, Esq., Clerk of Courts of Dubuque County ; Hon. SAMUEL MURDOCH, of Elkader; Hon. DAVID SECOR, Register, and J. M. DAVIS, Esq., Deputy Register of the State Land Office, and to JOHN GHARKY, Esq., of Memphis, Mo., the Pioneer editor of Fayette, for courtesies extended to our representatives.
In conclusion, we may be permitted to express the earnest hope that before two score more of years have passed, other and abler pens will have gathered and recorded the historic events that are to follow the close of this offering to the people of Fayette, that the history of the county may be preserved unbroken from generation to generation ; and to this end public records, private journals and newspaper files should be carefully preserved.
July, 1878.
PUBLISHERS.
CONTENTS.
HISTORICAL.
PAGE.
History Northwest Territory.
19
Geographical Position. 19 Early Explorations. 20 Discovery of the Ohio. 33
English Explorations and Set- tlements. 35 American Settlements. 60
Division of the Northwest Ter- ritory. 66 Tecumseh and the War of 1812 70
Black Hawk and the Black
Hawk War.
74
Other Indian Troubles.
79
Present Condition of the North- west 86
Chicago
95
Illinois
240
Indiana
242
Iowa ...
243
Michigan
244
Wisconsin
245
Minnesota
247
Nebraska.
248
History of Iowa :
Geographical Situation. 109
Topography. .109
Drainage System
110
Rivers.
111
Lakes
118
Springs
.119
Agricultural Statistics ... 274 History of Fayette County from Prairies 120 early settlement to present time 307 War History Geology .120 Climatology 137
Discovery and Occupation 139 Territory 147 Indians 147 Pike's Expedition 151 Indian Wars 152
Indian Purchase, Reserves and Treaties .. 159 Spanish Grants 163
Half-Breed Tract ..
164
PAGE.
History of Iowa :
PAGE.
Early Settlements ..... 166
Territorial History ... 173
Boundary Question. 177
State Organization 181
Growth and Progress 185
Agricultural College and Farm.186
State University. 187 State Historical Society. .193
Penitentiaries.
194
Insane Hospitals. 195
College for the Blind. 197
Deaf and Dumb Institution. .199 Soldiers' Orphans' Homes 199
State Normal School. .201
Asylum for Feeble Minded Children. 201 Reform School 202 Fish Hatching Establishment .. 203 Public Lands 204
Public Schools
218
Political Record 223
War Record. 229
Number Volunteers 233 Number Casualties-Officers ... 234 Number Casualties-Enlisted Men . 236
Population. 238
416
War Record.
428
County Poor Farm.
445
Wadena ..
.554
County Officers 1850-1878.
.446
Smithfield Township.
.. 558
Harlan Township
560
Fremont Township.
.. 563
Township Officers, 1878.
449
Post Offices and Postmasters ... 450
Railroads.
.453
Oel wein
.. 565
Black Hawk War
157
Press
.456
Otsego ..
.568
Jefferson Township
569
Historical and Pioneer Associa- tions .. 460 Agricultural Society and Me- chanics' Institute. 467
History of Fayette County :
Creameries & Cheese Factories .. 468 Fine Stock Breeders' Associa- tion 470
Medical Society
.470
Home Insurance Company
.. 471
Educational
.472
Miscellaneous.
481
Patrons of Husbandry 485
Fire Insurance. .485
Life Insurance
.485
Abstract Assessment
.573
Vote of 1876.
304
Property Statement 574
History of Towns :
West Union. 487
Westfield and Fayette
507
Lima ...
.515
Albany
516
Westfield Township. .516
Elgin and Lutra ..
.521
Clermont
527
Eldorado
.531
Auburn
.534
Eden Township.
.537
Windsor Township
539
Bethel Township.
.. 540
Banks Township
.. 541
Fairfield Township.
.. 544
Brush Creek
.546
Taylorsville
.. 550
Randalia
.551
Oran Township
570
Putnam Township
.. 571
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Mouth of the Mississippi 21
Source of the Mississippi 21
La Salle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay 25
Buffalo Hunt 27
Captain Jack, the Modoc Chieftain 83 Trapping 29
Kinzie House 85 Hunting 32
Iroquois Chief 34
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain .. 43
Indians Attacking Frontiersmen ..
56
A Pioneer School House
88
A Prairie Storm
59
A Pioneer Dwelling .. 61
Breaking Prairie .... 63 Wild Prairie .. 23
Tecumseh, the Shawanoe Chieftain 69
Indians Attacking a Stockade. 72
Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain ..... Big Eagle. 80
PAGE.
PAGE.
Pioneers' First Winter 91 Great Iron Bridge of C., R. I. & P. R. R., Crossing the Mississippi at Davenport, Iowa 91
75
Chicago in 1833
95
Old Fort Dearborn, 1830.
98
Present Site Lake Street Bridge,
Chicago, 1833.
98
Ruins of Chicago.
104
View of the City of Chicago.
106
Hunting Prairie Wolves
249
A Representative Pioneer. 86
Lincoln Monument. 87
Center Township.
552
vi
CONTENTS.
LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
Hale, Samuel
.555
Hillsinger, L. D.
.... 423
Probasco, A ..
637
.339 Rogers, Jacob W.
......... .. 303
Hoagland, Hiram. 457 Morse, B ..
Hensley, A. J
.703
Mcclintock, W .......
373 |Talmadge. C. H. .489
FAYETTE COUNTY VOLUNTEERS.
PAGE.
Infantry :
Infantry :
Third .428
Ninth .430
Thirty-eighth & Thirty-fourth .. 434
Sixth. 440
Twelfth .432
Forty-sixth .439
Seventh 441
Eighteenth 433
.434
BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Auburn
.748
Fayette
701
Pleasant Valley 718
Bethel
Banks .658
601
Fairfield
605
Smithfield 679
Clermont ?.
.732
Harlan 596
Scott .662
Center ..
712
Illyria. 635
Windsor .692
Dover .672
Jefferson 643
West Union .. 575
Eden
623
Oran
665
Westfield
686
ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Adoption of Children .. 287
Forms :
Jurors .281
Limitation of Actions
.281
Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes
275
Confession of Judgment .. 290
Landlord and Tenant ... 288
Commercial Terms. 289
Lease .296 Married Women
282
Capital Punishment .. 282
Mortgages. .294
Marks and Brands 284
Charitable, Scientific and Reglious Associations 300
Notice to Quit
293
Mechanics' Liens. .285
Roads and Bridges 286
Surveyors and Surveys .. 287
Suggestions to Persons Purchasing Books by Subscription 303
Forms :
Warranty Deed. 298
Taxes ... 277
Wills and Estates. 276
Bills of Sale . 292
Interest.
275
Weights and Measures 289
Bond for Deed. 299
Intoxicating Liquors. .301
Wolf Scalps.
284
Bills of Purchase .290
Jurisdiction of Courts. 281
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Map of Fayette County. Front.
How to Keep Accounts .269 Interest Table. 270
Vote for President and Vice Pres- ident ... .264
Miscellaneous Table ... 270
Names of the States of the Union and their Significations. 271
Population of the Principal Coun- tries in the World. 273
United States Government Land
Measure ... .268
Population of the United States. 272
Population of Fifty Principal Cities of the United States. .... Population and Area of the United .272 States. .. 273
Practical Rules for Every-Day Use .. 265
Receipts. .290
Estrays 283
Wills and Codicils
293 | Support of Poor 287
Articles of Agreement 291
Fences
284
Descent .275
Orders. 290
Damages from Trespass. 284
Quit Claim Deed 299
Exemptions from Execution 282
Fremont ..
.742
Putnam
616
Cavalry :
First 440
Thirty-seventh 434
Miscellaneous 439
Ninth 442
Miscellaneous. 442
Twenty-first
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Surveyor's Measure 269 Constitution of United States. .. 250
Chattel Mortgage. 298
Notes. 290, 297
MAP OF FAYETTE COUNTY IOWA. COUNTY
WINNESHIEK
3
4
OLD MISSION PU
10
12
7
WAUCOMA
AEL DORADO
16
11
16
15
142
B
K
22
2 3
14
21
BENPO
26
9.5
31
CLERMONT
BETHEL P.O.
WINDSOR
294
10
7
10
N
/7
16
BETHE
'
N
D
R
79
1.9
90
21
23
HAWK EYE RO
YES!
T
H
26
2.
27
Co
27
26
SER
S
31
?
33
32
33
3.5
36
31
32
ST PAS
$4
38
FAYETTE CO.
O
SNOST
17
1.5
14
13
: 7
16
3 15
14
17
ALBANY
14
7.93.1-
GROVE
20
19
20
24
FAYETTE
G
30
20
29
SY
WADENA
26
VOLGA
35
75
Z
6
5
1
E
O
7
12
7
-
9-
17
16
VI
15
14
FREMO
N
İT
R
L
SMITHFIELD
19
TAYLORSVILLE
D .?
24
199
12
₹ 7
26
25
30
2.9
27
25
24
2
30
24
EN BRUSH CREEK 27
₩ 26
E
MSEATON_R.O.
R.
.76
317
32
36
32
3:3
35
36
R.
WAF
R
NO,
C
13
18
17
16
15
14
EFFER SO
3
27
2
19
20
22
23
19
20
OELWEIN
ORAN PO.
26
2.5
30
26
25
30
2.0
27
26
25
30
PUTNAM P.O.
7
---
31
354
30
33
84
85
36
32
38
9 34
35
86
FAIRBANKS
RXW BUCHANAN
RIXW.
R VIIIV.
COUNTY
RVIIW.
-
30
WESTFIELD
R.
.73
76
32
16
13
14
1.3
CIMILL PO.
2 7
24
19
MY MAYNARD
DAVENPO
30
29
VOL
A
3.7
36
32
33639
CEDAR RAPIDS
2
6
5
4
2
6
4
3
MAQUOKCI
S
10
7
5
4
10
12
1.3
GOTT CENTER POD
17
16
1.5
14
C
D
B
24
70
So
27
6
3X
1%
BURLINGTON
3.5
ST. PAUL
.3
2
6
L
1
6
17
16
15
1.3
10V
LUTRATIE
13
-
ELGIN
PROP
21
J 22
24
EL BRAINARD SURE
DAVENPORT
25
30
ER
WESTFIELD
ZR
RANDALIA
PROF.
24
450
WEST UNION
3
CKAS
17 3
LERMONT
0
23
A
236
2
2
7
6
26
7
2.3
22
16
3
F
10
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and north to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River ; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National domain, and subsequently opened to settlement, has been called the " New Northwest," in contradistinction from the old "Northwestern Territory."
In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles ; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggregate popula- tion, at the present time, of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one third of the entire population of the United States.
Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far- stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.
For the last twenty years the increase of population in the North- west has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.
(19)
20
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims " moored their bark on the wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had pene- trated through the Iroquois and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron ; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result; yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor Gen- eral of Canada, explored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of Michillimackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied -as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a
-
BRIGHAM
MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
21
22
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expe- dition, prepared for the undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assist- ant French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was involved ; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Mar- quette was delighted to find a beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town ornamented with white skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the Winter in giving them an abundant " chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said : " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of
23
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs on either hand "reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of buffalo appeared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could see a country of the greatest beauty and fertility, apparently destitute of inhab- itants yet presenting the appearance of extensive manors, under the fas- tidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.
THE WILD PRAIRIE.
On June 25, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course
24
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
up the river, and ascending the stream to the mouth of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. "Nowhere on this journey," says Marquette, " did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and reported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as he was passing the mouth of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate Mass. Leaving his men with the canoe, he retired a short distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the beloved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.
While Marquette and his companions were pursuing their labors in the West, two men, differing widely from him and each other, were pre- paring to follow in his footsteps and perfect the discoveries so well begun by him. These were Robert de La Salle and Louis Hennepin.
After La Salle's return from the discovery of the Ohio River (see the narrative elsewhere), he established himself again among the French trading posts in Canada. Here he mused long upon the pet project of those ages-a short way to China and the East, and was busily planning an expedition up the great lakes, and so across the continent to the Pacific, when Marquette returned from the Mississippi. At once the vigorous mind of LaSalle received from his and his companions' stories the idea that by fol- lowing the Great River northward, or by turning up some of the numerous western tributaries, the object could easily be gained. He applied to Frontenac, Governor General of Canada, and laid before him the plan, dim but gigantic. Frontenac entered warmly into his plans, and saw that LaSalle's idea to connect the great lakes by a chain of forts with the Gulf of Mexico would bind the country so wonderfully together, give un- measured power to France, and glory to himself, under whose adminis- tration he earnestly hoped all would be realized.
LaSalle now repaired to France, laid his plans before the King, who warmly approved of them, and made him a Chevalier. He also received from all the noblemen the warmest wishes for his success. The Chev-
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