USA > Iowa > An illustrated history of the state of Iowa, being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875; > Part 16
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FORTS DES MOINES AND DODGE.
heavily-loaded train of wagons through an uninhabited country, they arrived at the Des Moines, at the point designated, on the evening of the 23d of August, 1850, and encamped on the ground now lying between the public square and Walnut street, and be- tween Fourth and Fifth streets in Fort Dodge. Upon their arrival, all the Indians fled from the east to the west side of the Des Moines, and something like nine months elapsed before any of them ventured to come near them or to communicate with them.
A commencement was made immediately to prepare the neces- sary materials for building and preparing for winter quarters. In the latter part of November, the buildings were up, and generally so far finished as to enable troops to move into them, when they struck their tents and took possession of them. In honor of Gen. Clarke, then colonel of the 6th regiment, U. S. infantry, to which the troops belonged, the post was name "Fort Clarke."
In the fall of 1851, by order of the secretary of war, the name of the fort was changed to that of Fort Dodge, in honor of Gen. Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin, then U. S. senator from that state. The change of name was made in consequence of a por- tion of the 6th regiment having built a fort further west, and also named it Fort Clarke, which caused confusion in mail matters and in forwarding supplies. The military reservation intended for Fort Dodge was four miles south and four miles north of the fort, along the Des Moines river, and two miles on each side of said river, making a strip of land eight miles long by four miles wide, but before it was distinctly surveyed and laid out, the de- cision was made that the Des Moines river grant extended above Raccoon fork to the source of the Des Moines river, giving every . odd section to the state of Iowa, for the improvement of the river up to the Raccoon fork. This decision interfered with the United States making such reservation, and when the lands were section- ized, it was found that the buildings and improvements were erected on a river section, viz .: Section number 19, township 89, range 28 west. At this post, during the time they were stationed here, the troops were kept very busy in checking the Indians, and preventing them from committing depredations on frontier set- tlers. They had in charge all the north, northeastern and north- western frontiers, from the eastern part of the state to the Mis-
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
souri river. An outfit of thirty men, mounted, was constantly kept in readiness, to pursue the savages, when an alarm was given, and a great part of the time kept men on the scout to watch their movements.
In 1853 the troops stationed at Fort Dodge were ordered to move one hundred and fifty miles north in Minnesota, to build a new fort on the north line of the then new purchase made from the Sioux Indians which has been built and named Fort Ridge- ley. In the latter part of September, 1853, the last division of the troops left, when the fort was abandoned. Maj. Wm. Wil- liams quit the service with the view of purchasing the post site and adjoining lands. On the 27th of March 1854, the first town plat was surveyed on the premises known as the fort site, the property, having become the property of Maj. Williams, who made the purchase in January, 1854; a post office was estab- lished the same year and a government land office located and the lands in the vicinity were soon taken up. Of the further history of the town it is unnecessary to speak.
CHAPTER XXVII.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. HEMPSTEAD.
Fourth Session of the State Legislature - Statistics - Election - Immigra- tion - Progress of Settlements.
THE FOURTH session of the general assembly convened at Iowa City on the 6th day of December 1852, and adjourned Jan- uary 24, 1853. The senate was organized by the election of Hon. James Grant as president and J. Smith Hooton as secretary, and in the assembly by the election of W. E. Leffingwell as speaker, and T. B. Cuming as chief clerk. On the day following, Gov. S. Hempstead sent to each house a copy of his message which was read by the secretary of the senate and chief clerk of the assembly. The governor refers at the beginning of the mes- sage, to the death of Hons. John C. Calhoun, Levi Woodbury and Daniel Webster, and to the loss sustained by the decease of these eminent statesmen. He states that at the organization of the state government, the number of inhabitants amounted to seventy- eight thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight. By the census taken by the United States in 1850, the state has a population of one hundred and ninety-two thousand two hundred and fourteen, and by the returns of the state census, for the present year, an in- crease of thirty-seven thousand seven hundred and eighty-six. Of the financial affairs of the state, he says, the report of the state treasurer shows that there has been received into the treasury from the second day of December, 1850, to the thirty-first day of October, 1852, the sum of $139,681.69; balance received from former treasurer, one dollar and thirty-nine cents, making an ag- gregate of $139,683.08. The disbursements for the same period are $131,631.49, leaving a balance in the treasury at the latter date of $8,051.59. The auditor of state states the funded debt of the state amounts to $81,795.75, of which amount $26,795.75,
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
are payable at the option of the state. The estimated expenses for the two years to come, amount to $103,918.90. The estimated resources for the same period with the balance in the treasury, amount to $149,119.47, an amount which after deducting ten per cent. for delinquencies and assessments as unavailable, will leave a balance of receipts over expenditures fully sufficient to extin- guish all that part of the funded debt of the state which is paya- ble at its option ; and the governer recommends that provision be made to pay the same as rapidly as any surplus means may come into the treasury.
The governor recommended the establishing of the office of at- torney general, and also a state land office for the supervision and sale of lands which have been or may hereafter be granted to the state. He reports that of the $10,000 appropriated by the last general assembly for the state penitentiary, $8,736.56, have been expended upon the building, and freehold improvements.
The attention of the legislature is directed to the importance of proper organization of the militia laws of the state, also to the affairs of the Des Moines river improvement, and recommended decisive action in relation to the same. He gives his views at length on the subject of banking and is decidedly opposed to any movement toward amending the constitution of the state author- izing the establishment of banks or banking corporations in the state. In conclusion he says : " The state of Iowa is in a prosper- ous condition - rapidly increasing in population - owing, perhaps, the smallest public debt of any state in the union ; all industrial employments finding encouragement under the regular adminis- tration of the laws, and warm in her attachment to the union, and to the just rights of each state composing it."
On the 21st of December the general assembly in joint conven- tion elected George W. Jones United States senator for the state of Iowa for six years from the fourth of March ensuing.
The following are some of the important acts passed at this session : to dispose of the swamp and overflowed lands in the state, granted by act of congress ; to establish an asylum for the blind ; to regulate the interest on money ; fixing the boundaries of the judicial circuits of the state; to reapportion the state into senate and assembly districts ; to dispose of the saline lands of the
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC. PHILA
Hon. Geo. W. Mccrary.
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state ; to provide for work on the state capitol at Iowa City ; and a number of acts organizing new counties, granting the right of way to rail and plank roads, and to secure the vig- orous prosecution of the improvements at Des Moines, and to provide for the election of an attorney general and defining his duties.
At the general election held August 7, 1854, Jas. W. Grimes received 23,312 votes for governor, and Curtiss Bates 21,192 votes ; the former was elected; and at the presidential election held in November, the whig electors received 45,196 votes, and the den- ocratic electors received 37,663. The whig candidates, who were elected, at a meeting of the electoral college, cast the vote of the state for John C. Fremont for president.
In the years 1854 and 1855, the stream of emigration began to" pour into Iowa from the eastern states to an extent that was aston- ishing and unprecedented. For miles and miles, day after day, the prairies of Illinois were lined with cattle and wagons, pushing on towards Iowa. At Peoria, one gentleman says that during a single month, seventeen hundred and forty-three wagons had passed through that place, and all for Iowa. Allowing five persons to a wagon, which is a fair average, we have 8,715 souls added to the population. The Chicago Press says: " Most of the passenger trains came in last week with two locomotives, and the reason of this great increase of power will be understood when it is known that twelve thousand passengers arrived from the east by the Mich- igan Southern Railroad during the last week." The Burlington Telegraph says : " Twenty thousand emigrants have passed through the city within the last thirty days, and they are still crossing the Mississippi at the rate of six and seven hundred a day." These figures were furnirhed by the ferryman, who keeps a sort of run- ning calendar; and the editor of the Dubuque Reporter writes : "Never before in the history of this northwestern region has there been a more gratifying spectacle than that now presented to those who take an interest in its progress and welfare. Viewing the almost countless throng of immigrants that crowd our streets, and learning that a similar scene is visible at every other point along the Mississippi border of Iowa, the spectator is naturally led to infer that a general exodus is taking place in the eastern states of
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ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. HEMPSTEAD.
the Union, as well as in those that, a few years ago, were denom- inated the west.
" Day by day the endless procession moves on - a mighty army of invasion, which, were its objects other than peace, and a frater- nal, cordial league with its predecessors, their joint aim to con- quer this fair and alluring domain from the wild dominion of nature, would strike terror in the boldest hearts. They come by hundreds and thousands from the hills and valleys of New En- gland, bringing with them that same untiring, indomitable energy and perseverance that have made their native states the admira- tion of the world, and whose influence is felt wherever enterprise has a votary, or commerce spreads a sail ; with intellects sharp- ened to the keenest edge, and brawny arms to execute the firm resolves of their iron will, and gathering fresh accessions as they swept across the intermediate country from the no less thrifty and hardy population of New York, Ohio, and Indiana. Tarrying no longer among us than to select their future homes, away they hie to the capacious and inviting plains, that spread themselves inter- minably, ready to yield, almost without preparation, their rich, latent treasures.
" In reply to the question that may be asked, to what is the high tide setting into Iowa to be ascribed ? we take it on our- selves to answer, that the unanimous consent of those who have investigated her claims accords her a climate of unequaled salu- brity, a soil of the most generous fertility and a geographical position unsurpassed by that of any other western state; in a word, that naturally she contains within her limits all the ele- ments, which properly availed of by man, will secure his highest temporal prosperity and happiness. Whilst the contiguous states, and many of those more remote, have yielded harvests diminished by drought in the ratio of from a fourth to a half, hers has been, at least, equal to an average one. She is thus able to supply not only her producers, but likewise all who have since come, and yet to arrive this year. When we take into account the central position of Iowa in the confederacy, and the fact of the rapid development of her resources, we can easily believe that she is destined to become, at no distant day, all that the most sanguine hope for. Her salubrious climate, and abundance of water, and
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
the favorable distribution of timber, and mineral resources, all contribute to give Iowa preeminence among the western states in the minds of those who are exchanging a residence in the east, for one in the west.
" Such are the inducements Iowa holds out to the agriculturist, coupled with a promise to return him for immeasurably less labor than would be required at the east, an unsurpassable abundance of any and every article which the zone we live in is capable of producing."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. GRIMES
Fifth Session of the State Legislature -Indian Outbreak - Governor's Mes- sages - Special Session - Its Work - Events of 1854-5.
THE FIFTH general assembly of the state of Iowa met at Iowa City and commenced its regular session on the fourth day of December, 1854, and was organized in the senate by the election of S. G. McAchran, president pro tempore, and Philip B. Bradley, secretary pro tempore. On the seventh of January, Maturin L. Fisher was, on the seventeenth ballot, elected president, and on the eighth, P. B. Rankin was elected secretary on the twenty- first ballot. In the house of representatives, P. Gad Bryan was elected speaker, and P. B. Bradley, chief clerk. On the eighth Gov. Hempstead sent to the general assembly his annual message, from which the following information is derived relating to the administration of the government for the two preceding years : The funded debt of the state, for which bonds have been issued, amounts to the sum of $79,795.75; of this amount the sum of $16,442.05 became due on the first day of May, 1854, and the others will be payable in 1856, 1857 and 1859. The treasurer's report shows, that from the first day of November, 1852, up to the thirty-first day of October, 1854, there has been received into the treasury, $125,462.57, of which sum $10,515.70 was received on the sale of the saline lands. During that time there has been paid out on auditor's warrants, $118,542.90. The amount of money in the treasury, on the thirty-first day of October last, was $15,522.22, including the sum of $8,602.88, which was in the treasury on the first day of November, 1852.
A change in the manner of the assessment of taxes is recom- mended so as to require the election of a county assessor for each county. The school laws of the state, the governor regards
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
as too complicated, and recommends that the duties then per- formed by the school fund commissioners be transferred and discharged by the county treasurer. The establishment and endowment of an asylum for lunatics, he recommended to the favorable consideration of the general assembly. Reference is made to the improvement of the Des Moines river, and it is stated, that under the provisions of law, a contract has been made with Henry O'Reilley and others for the completion of the improve- ment- a portion of the old debts have been paid, and the im- provement is said to be progressing. He calls attention to the militia laws of the state, and recommends a militia organization such as will enable the state, in case of emergency, to defend itself and protect the citizens from depredation of the Indians. He further states, that he received information in July, 1854, from certain counties in the west and northwest portions of the state, that a large body of Indians, well armed and equipped, had made demonstrations of hostility by fortifying themselves in various places, killing stock and plundering houses, and that many of the inhabitants had entirely forsaken their homes and left a large portion of their property at the mercy of the enemy ; and praying that a military force be sent to protect them and their settlements. Upon the receipt of this information an order was immediately issued to Gen. J. G. Shields, directing him to call out the City Guards of Dubuque, and such other force as might be necessary, not exceeding two companies, to remove the Indians from the state. This order was promptly obeyed, and the company were ready for service, when information was re- ceived that the Indians had dispersed, that the citizens were returning to their homes and quiet had been restored. Authority was also given to Maj. Williams of Fort Dodge, to raise a volun- teer company, should it be necessary to remove any Indians who should be found disturbing any of the inhabitants of the county of Franklin or the adjoining counties.
The appointment of a commissioner of emigration for the state of Iowa, to reside in the city of New York, whose duty it should be to give immigrants the necessary information as to soil, climate and the branches of business to be pursued with advantage in the state, is strongly urged. He recommended that a memorial
8
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC.PHIL A.
O
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
be passed, urging upon congress the justice of making a grant of lands for railroad purposes to the state, and that such application be concentrated upon one road, to run from the Mississippi to the Missouri river through the central portion of the state; and, in conclusion, reiterates his views, expressed in previous communi- cations, on the subject of banking, of state indebtedness, and of exclusive privileges, and is decidedly opposed to any amendment of the constitution that will authorize their introduction in the state.
On the 9th of December, the two houses met in joint conven- tion for the purpose of canvassing the vote cast at the last general election. The speaker of the assembly then proceeded to open the official returns in the presence of both houses, and, after can- vassing, announced that James W. Grimes had received 23,312, Curtis Bates, 21,192, and 10 votes scattering; whereupon the president of the convention announced that James W. Grimes, having received a majority of the votes cast for governor, was de- clared elected for the ensuing gubernatorial term. A committee was then appointed to wait upon the governor elect to inform him that the general assembly was ready to receive him in joint con- vention, and to administer the oath of office prescribed by law. The governor soon after appeared with the other state officers, and delivered his inaugural address. In his address, he recom- mends that the public schools of the state should be supported by taxation of property, and that the present rate system should be abolished, and suggests the propriety of establishing in every school district a school library. He recommends a state constitu- tional convention, and that the question be submitted to a vote of the people at an early day. He refers at some length to the ac- tion of congress on the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and takes strong grounds against this action, and to the extension of slavery into the territories.
On the 13th of December, the general assembly again met in joint convention for the purpose of electing a United States senator and judges of the supreme court, on which no choice was made by the convention, and no definite result had. On the 5th of January, 1855, Hon. George G. Wright was elected chief justice of the supreme court ; William G. Woodward, associate
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ADMINISTRATION OF Gov. GRIMES.
judge; and, on the 6th, Norman W. Isbell was elected an associ- ate judge of the supreme court, and Hon. James Harlan was elected United States senator on the ninth ballot. The general assembly adjourned January 26, 1855.
On Įthe 3d of June, 1856, Gov. Grimes issued his procla- mation convening the general assembly in special session, on the the 2d day of July, 1856, on which day the two houses convened at the capitol. Hon. M. L. Fisher, president of the senate, and P. B. Bradley, secretary. The governor sent to the general as- sembly his message, from which the following information is taken: He states that, by an act of congress, approved May 15, 1856, there was "granted to the state, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of railroads from Burlington, on the Missis- sippi, to a point on the Missouri river near the month of the Platte river; from the city of Davenport via Iowa City and Fort des Moines to Council Bluffs ; from Lyons City, northwesterly to a point of intersection with the main line, running as near as practicable to the 42d parallel, across the said state, to the Mis- souri river, near Sioux City, with a branch from the mouth of the Tete des Morts to the nearest point on said road, to be com- pleted as soon as the main road is completed to that point, every alternate section of land designated by odd numbers, for six sec- tions in width on each side of said roads." The governor states that he had convened the general assembly at that time so that the following points should be determined upon: 1st. Whether or not the state shall accept the grant made under the act of 15th of May last; and, if so, 2d. Whether the lands shall be trans- ferred to any specific companies; and, if so, to what companies they shall be transferred; and 3d. Upon what terms shall the transfer be made, and expresses the hope that, whatever action may be had, " the protection of the people against the sometimes oppressive monopolizing tendencies of powerful corporations," will not be lost sight of.
The governor refers to the destruction, by fire, of the work shops attached to the state penitentiary, and recommends the en- largement of the building for the increased wants of that institu- tion. The extra session adjourned, July 16, 1856.
The following are a few of the important laws enacted at the two
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sessions of the general assembly : an act for the observance of the Sabbath; for the suppression of intemperance; to relocate the seat of government; to amend the law in relation to divorce; to provide for the revision or amendment of the constitution of the state; to provide for the prosecution of the geological survey of the state; to establish a state institution for the deaf and dumb; to establish a state insane asylum; to apportion the state into senate and assembly districts; to establish a state land office; to accept of the grant and carry into execution the trust conferred upon the state by act of congress granting lands in alternate sec- tions to aid in the construction of railroads in the state, and a large number of acts locating state roads, incorporating and amending acts of incorporation of towns, villages and cities, and joint resolutions and memorials asking congress for grants of land for railroad purposes. The act which was passed at the regular session for a revision or amendment to the constitution of the state, provided for an election on the first Monday in August, in the year 1856, for taking a vote of the people for or against a constitution. The election resulted in a majority of 18,628 in favor of holding the convention, and in carrying out the law. An election for delegates was held in November. 1856, and the con- vention met at Iowa City on the 19th of January, 1857, and elected Francis Springer, president, and Thos. J. Saunders, secretary. The convention struck out the clause in the old constitution limiting the state indebtedness, and also the one prohibiting bank- ing. A state board of education was created, the office of lieu- tenant governor and a grant of the privileges of banking to cor- poratious. The constitution was subsequently submitted to the voice of the people at an election held on the third day of August, 1857, at which election there were 40,311 votes cast for the con- stitution, and 38,681 votes against it, and the same was adopted and took effect by proclamation of the governor on the third of September, 1857.
CHAPTER XXIX.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. GRIMES.
Sixth Session of the State Legislature - Statistics - Legislation.
THE SIXTH general assembly of the state convened at Iowa City, on the first day of December, 1856, and was organized in the senate by the election of W. W. Hamilton as president, and C. C. Nourse, secretary ; and in the house by the election of Sumuel McFarland, speaker, and J. W. Logan, chief clerk. The general assembly adjourned on the 29th of January, 1857.
On the 3d of December, the governor sent to each house his biennial message, which was read by the secretary and chief clerk of the senate and house of representatives. A synopsis of this document will be given as affording the best condensed account of the affairs of the state at that time. The progress of the state is reported during the past two years to have been extraordinary, and in many respects unexampled ; "in population, in produc- tive power, in educational facilities, the advance has been such as to astound the doubtful and to surprise the most sanguine."
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