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 33
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tinue to increase indefinitely for cen- turies to come.
The Wapsipinicon river ranks next in importance to the Cedar, and like that river, it flows through this county into Black Hawk. This river offers a successiou of powers which, in part, have and, in still greater part, will be made available as mill powers. The bottom lands of the Wapsipinicon are liable to be overflowed occasionally, and, in consequence, the farming com- munity seeks residence elsewhere, while still appreciating the fertility which comes from the incidental wan- derings of the stream. The Little Wapsipinicon runs through Bremer county in two directions, continuing, after its second departure, to flow with the main Wapsipinicon, along within easy distance of the county line. Buck creek is a considerable watercourse, having its rise in the northwestern part of Bremer, and running through the eastern tier of townships, Sumner, Dayton and Franklin, is of much value for stock raisers and agriculturists. This creek empties into the Little Wapsipinicon at a considerable dis- tance from its source. Crane creek runs parallel with the main Wapsipin- icon, and eventually falls into that stream, after watering the townships of Warren, Maxfield and Fremont, and finding its way into Black Hawk coun- ty. Shell Rock river is only second in size to the Cedar ; and it comes, like that river, from Minnesota, flowing through Bremer into Black Hawk, and affording on its way, much aid to the farmer in his several pursuits. There are many inferior streams which do not need to be specified.
As might have been anticipated by any person conversant with the wealth of water supply in Bremer, the region was at one time prodigally supplied with timber; fully one-sixth of the whole region being covered with val- uable woods. There has been, unfor- tunately, much destruction of groves, within the memory of the oldest inhab- itants, and if the work of denudation goes on, the residents in Bremer may, within twenty years, have to look be yond their own borders for lumber and fuel. The groves now remaining are less extensive by one-half than they were, and only in a few cases are agri- culturists giving their attention to for- estry. In eastern countries, so great is
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known to be the importance of trees, that the sanctions of religious usage are occasionally invoked to preserve forests from destruction; and the ab- sence of such precautions have re- sulted from times immemorial in large regions of country becoming desert. The experiences of M. Lesseps, in planting quick growing trees across the line of country in which he carried out his great canal enterprise, may, with advantage, be remembered by farmers everywhere, as a means of in- creasing their own wealth.
The soil of Bremer county produces wheat, corn and oats, in abundance, and indeed the same may be said of barley, rye, sorghum, potatoes, hay and grass seeds. Fruits, and all kinds of garden vegetables return large profits to their growers, and much attention is given continually to horses, cattle, swine and sheep. Nearly two-thirds of all the land now assessed in Bre- mer county is improved, and the time cannot be far distant when the propor- tion will be still greater. The Ger- man population in Bremer is about equal to the native American, the gross total being a little over 16,000. Other nationalities are represented, but generally the foreign admixture has given attention to agriculture, while the Yankee from New England, and other Americans, devote them- selves to manufactures, trade and mer- chandise. The intermixture promises to work well in building up a popula- tion remarkable for stamina and intel- ligence, among which education will come to be considered the highest ob- ject, when it is understood to mean a thorough course of mental and phy- sical training, such as will give the highest results in the future of the race.
Winnebago Indians held the land now covered by Bremer county as their reservation in May, 1845, when the first white man staked out his location in the Big Woods. The first settler soon removed his family to the same locality, and his example being fol- lowed by men of like mould, it was found possible to establish a commu- nity, which, for many years, flourished without doctors, lawyers, judges or preachers; every man being a law un- to himself.
The work of organization at last be- came necessary, as the nearest post
office was for many years, twenty miles distant, and schools were hardly to be found at a less distance ; consequently, in 1847, the survey was commenced, and in 1851, the government lands came into the market. The territory was at the same time added to Buchanan couu- ty for purposes of taxation and rule, and the Winnebagoes left their reser- vation for Crow River, Minnesota. The county was organized when there were only eighty voters within its lim- its, and the county seat was located at Waverly, in 1853. The progress of the county, never very rapid, has been steady ever since. The troubles of the early settlers were sometimes consid- erable, as for instance, the first couple that desired to perpetrate matrimony, were forced to travel to Linn county to procure the ratification demanded by law, and they were snow hound on their journey five days and nights, be- fore the connubial bonds were forged. The first frame house erected in the county is said to have been the Meth- odist Episcopal parsonage at Janes- ville, and the first school taught in the county dates from 1853. The name of the county was given in honor of the authoress, Miss Frederika Bremer, who perhaps never knew of the re- markable fact, but the circumstance is none the less creditable to the people.
The work of organization has gone on steadily from the first rude begin- nings, and there is only one record of judge Lynch being called upon to ad- judicate, when a man named McRob- erts, accused of horse stealing, was hanged by a mob.
The great rebellion found the settlers in Iowa thoroughly imbued with the patriotic ideas which animated Lin- coln and his coworkers. Like him they had hoped against hope for a peaceful solution of all difficulties un- til Sumter fell, and with the first hos- tile shot fired from the southern bat- tery, there was a reaction indicative of the final result through all the free states, and more especially among the best. The county rose like one man to sustain the government; and not content with mere verbal sympathy, military companies were formed and officered in Waverly, Horton, Bremer and in other towns. Besides all this, a fund was raised to provide for the wives and families of men who might be induced to volunteer for the war.
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Such works went on as long as the war lasted, and it is a fact patent to the world that when the cruel war was over, provision was made and contin- ned for the children of slain soldiers. Small as the population of the county was, in April, 1861, when the first meet- ing was called, no less than five hun- dred soldiers enlisted from Bremer county, and their good deeds were noted on many bloody fields.
The county is well provided with railroads. The Cedar Valley branch of the Iowa division of the Illinois Central Railroad runs through the western tier of townships. The branch road known as the Cedar Falls and Minnesota Railroad is completed to Waverly, with a station at Janes- ville, and other extensions are being made.
The Iowa Pacific Railroad traverses Bremer in a southwesterly direction, crossing the Cedar Valley road at Wa- verly, where it is carried by a bridge and trestlework, in all nearly two thousand eight hundred feet long. The mention of these items will give our readers a fair idea of the provis- ions for travel and traffic enjoyed by the residents in Iowa generally, and of Bremer in particular.
WAVERLY is the capital of the coun- ty, and the public buildings, for the dispatch, of county business, are of course located here. The court house is a very fine building, not ornate, but convenient and substantial, and the principal county offices are provided for in a fire proof building. The scen- ery surrounding these buildings is very fine, and the positions chosen could hardly be improved upon. The court house was built in 1857, at a cost of $23,000, and this money was well invested. Numerous committees have been appointed during a succession of years to establish what is known as " a poor farm," in which the poverty stricken might be sheltered without being entirely a charge upon the coun- ty ; but after numerous protracted en- deavors, the scheme has not proved a success; but lands have been pur- chased, and a tenement house built, which may become hereafter the nu- cleus of a considerable success. Wa- verly is the home of the Bremer coun- ty agricultural society, from which in- stitution great results may be expected as the county expands.
Waverly occupies both banks of the Cedar river, and is surrounded by well timbered land, and two railways com- pete for the honor and profit of sup- plying its demands. The first settler on the site of Waverly came there in 1850, and he was soon joined by oth- ers. The forest which now protects Waverly then covered its site. Mill dams were soon afterwards construct- ed, a sawmill built, and the town laid out sold readily. All the incidents which follow each other in rapid suc- cession in the establishment of frontier towns, came in due course to the resi- dents of Waverly, but to give even the briefest graphic delineation of such events would occupy more space than can be afforded. One item which commands attention from its preëmi- nent importance, is the fact that in the year 1858, a Teachers' Institute was convened in the court house at Waver- ly, and no less than fifty teachers were present during a session which extend- ed over one week. The fact that edu- cation commanded so much interest on the part of all concerned, as that the trainers of the young were induced to form a society for their own im- provement, testifies to the culture which prevailed in the common mind, and prepared the way for the highest ap- preciation of the labors of those best ministers to national progress. The town of Waverly was incorporated in 1859, and in 1868, when the population had increased to two thousand, the charter was changed to that of a city of the second class. In the year 1859, the first Sunday school was opened in the city, and the demand for churches has gone on increasing ever since, but in October, 1867, the board of super- visors ordered that all buildings and lots, the property of ministers of what- ever denomination, should be taxed the same as all other properties in that city.
JANESVILLE is situated six miles south of Waverly on the east bank of the Cedar, and is the second town in the county. A beautiful grove skirts the town, which is built on rising ground. The Cedar Valley branch railroad finds here its southern termi- 'nal station, and the town has attained a very gratifying measure of prosperi- ty. The population of the place num- bers a little more than 400.
PLAINFIELD comes next in rank, its population being about two-thirds of
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that ascribed to Janesville. It is lo- cated about ten miles north of Waver- ly, on the west side of Cedar river, and this town is the northern teminal sta- tion of the before mentioned branch railroad. The town was laid out in 1855, when a sawmill and a gristmill were established. There are two churches in the little village, and the educational wants of youth have been provided in a manner which might give an example to many larger places.
SUMNER, with a population of two hundred, comes next in order. It stands on the line of the Iowa Pacific Railroad, half a mile west of the Little Wapsipinicon. The first settler came to the site of the village in 1872, and two years later the railroad company laid out the town, and gave it the name of the statesman whom all America honored. The progress made by Sum- ner has been very steady.
TRIPOLI is located on the west side of the Main Wapsipinicon, twelve miles from the county seat, and it has a population of one hundred. The town was originally the site of a saw- mill, and was called Martinsburg, in 1855, but when a post office was estab- lished there, the name was changed to its present appellation.
HORTON is a small place with about fifty people on the east side of Cedar river, ten miles north of Waverly.
JEFFERSON CITY was laid out in 1855; it is eight miles southeast of Waverly, and its progress has been slow, mainly depending upon one steam sawmill.
FREDERIKA is fifteen miles east of Waverly, on the Main Wapsipinicon ; it has a population about equal to Jef- ferson City, and its dependence is upon a similar enterprise, but it has grown more rapidly, having been established as late as 1868.
There are postoffices located at Buck Creek, Grove Hill, Dayton. Leroy, Maxfield, and Mentor, near all of which a few residences are beginning to ag- gregate.
Buchanan County is in the north- east section of Iowa, and it comprises an area of five hundred and seventy- six square miles. The surface of the county is such as to preclude the pos- sibility of stagnant water remaining upon the soil, yet the rolling, uneven country does not offer any obstacles
worth naming to the work of the farm- er. The land is warm, free aud easy to be cultivated, and it is the more beauti- ful for having broken away from the sameness of the level prairie. The landscape scenery of Buchanan county enraptures all competent judges of American loveliness. Near the water courses, where the timber is most luxu- riant, the land is more broken than in remoter regions, but even the precipi- tous heights add excellence to the scene without detracting from the ag- ricultural value of the country adjoin- ing Swamps and marshes are almost unknown in the county, and there are hardly a thousand acres of land in the whole region which is not capable of the very highest cultivation. Black loam is the characteristic soil of Bu- chanan county, with a subsoil of blue or yellow clay. Good farmers can work wonders with this richly pro- ductive soil, obtaining golden returns for their skilled lahor. Root erops, cereals, fruits, garden vegetables in al- most endless variety, and every deserip- tion of grass, wild or tame, can be raised rapidly and with profit by those who seek their livelihood as cattle raisers.
Buchanan county is well watered, having within its bounds no less than eight considerable streams, with al- most numberless branches and tributa- ries. The Wapsipinicon takes first rank among the rivers, passing through the county from northwest to south- east. The valley drained and fertilized by this river, within the boundaries of the county, is, for its size, one of the most fruitful in the world. West of the Mississippi there is nothing to compare with it for richness, always allowing for the fact that it is not very extensive. The river is fed by many springs, and it flows over a rocky bed, which preserves the limpid clearness of its water through nearly the whole of its course. It has an average de- scent of more than two feet to the mile, and that fact will not fail, later in its history, to bring mills and fac- tories to its banks, which must sully its silvery brightness to produce the gold of commerce. Nature seems to have constructed special sites for the location of mills at moderate distances along the line of this stream, but with little expense the number of mill sites may be indefinitely increased; and,
CHOOU CUPAWEST.PHIL.A.
T. RYAN, ESQ.
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
when that has been accomplished, Bu- | pective emergencies. Buchanan coun- chanan county will be one of the wealthiest portions of the state of Iowa. The name of this bright and shining river comes from the con- joined names of a fond couple of In- dian lovers -- Wapsi-Pinicon - who, being denied happiness on earth, sought the happy hunting grounds together by plunging beneath the sil- very stream. The highest water ever known in this stream can never over- top the commanding banks that im- prison its course. The water has grad- ually worn its own course through an almost continuous rock, and the banks remaining have, therefore, an excep- tional value for the location of mills. The river has an eastern branch which joins the main body in the northwest portion of the county, and is still fur- ther increased in bulk by the waters of Buck creek.
Otter creek drains the north and west of Buchanan county, and pro- vides additional power for mills and factories. Pine creek is a great stream, serving the double purpose of drain and fertilizer; and Buffalo creek is the second best water power in Bu- chanan county, eventually becoming tributary to the Wapsipinicon. Spring creek, Lime creek and Bear creek (trib- utaries of the Cedar), supply the south- west of the county. A map of the county, adequately representing the size and value of these several streams, with the conformation of the country, would show a territory singularly well provided with all that is needed to make up the sum total of a nation's progress. A soil, rich even to profu- sion, made living green by springs, creeks and rivers, yet protected by the fall of its surface toward its water courses, from any lodgment of stag- nant pools. No bog, no morass, no marsh to diffuse malaria through the atmosphere; a climate invigorating, even in its rigors, which says to the strong man, this is your region, here is full scope for your powers of body and brain ; no garden of idle delight, where the powers of the soul may rust, but a world full of trial and adventure, which may be conquered and pos- sessed.
Iowa is a prairie state, and it is au essential for the settler that, in such territory, he should find timber suffi- cient for his daily use and his pros- 1
ty offers him an acre of timber for every seven acres of prairie, and, as these woodlands are denuded, it is only necessary that the younger growths should be preserved to secure the like proportion for any conceivable dura- tion. The woods indigenous to the soil are just as good as can be found, all things considered, in any part of the world, but should changes of tim- ber be wished, for luxury or to meet the new necessities likely to arise in a community developing new features every day, the climate and the soil need only lapse of time to produce any growth not tropical, which the imagination of man may compass or desire. The woodlands in the county of Buchanan are well distributed, so that there is not to be found a section of the territory in which wood may be reached without trouble. The Wapsi- pinicon timber belt is, on an average, over one mile wide throughout, being, in some localities, fully six miles broad, and in no instance less than half a mile. Some parts of the timber in the helt named are very fine indeed, and all are valuable for building purposes or as fuel. The old belts and groves bordering on the lesser streams differ from those already described only in being less abundant, but the average of one acre in seven applies to the whole county.
The climate of northern Iowa is tolerably uniform. Cold is sometimes severe, falling occasionally from ten to twenty degrees below zero, but the changes are not sudden, and the weath- er has a quality of steadiness which makes its rigor easy to bear. The air if cold is crisp and pure, the snow gives good sleighing, and damp foggy weather, the annoyance common in softer climes, does not come there to mar the happiness of mankind. Per- sons suffering from pulmonary diseas- es have often been recommended to try the brisk invigoration of the win- ter in Iowa, in preference to the more insidious, if softer airs of the south, and in many cases such advice has been followed by good results. Sum- mer in Iowa calls out all the beauties of earth and sky, and the atmosphere has theu a charm entirely its own. Au- tumn, with its richly tinted foliage, every tree trying to present to the mind's eye, the burning bush, which
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told of holy ground, must be experi- enced to he comprehended. The pen- cil of the word painter fails to convey even the faintest idea of that exquisite season. After all that has been said of the climatic influences prevalent in Buchanan county, our readers will be quite prepared for the concluding state- ment on this subject, that the rate of mortality is exceptionally low, and that the average of health among set- tlers there is such as might well cause the medical faculty to despair.
The people who have come to possess this terrestrial paradise are exceptional- ly well qualified to make the best of its good features and to minimise the undesirable. The New England states, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio have given of their best to make up the sum total of the population, and these people each in their several degrees, have brought with them their well compacted ideas of the value of edu- cation which are seen every day mould- ing the youthful intellect for new con- quests. Such men, surrounded by in- fluences which do not cramp their en- ergies, and seconded by noble souled women, who have outlived the tute- lage which once stunted and oppressed the sex, will give to this country a bet- ter race than the poor specimens of humanity, that lurk in the alleys of our cities ; children that will grow up to he frugal and industrious members of so- ciety, and from whose ranks in the fu- ture will come the saving patriotic thought of every age.
Irish and Germans are present in Buchanan county, but not in control- ling numbers, and under the influences which mould society around them, they are among the best in industry and in illustrating the manners of free men.
The resources of this county have already been indicated if not cata- logued. The land clothed with grass at all seasons and capable of bear- ing in almost any quantity, the va- rities of food best adapted for stor- age to supply the wants of cattle dur- ing winter, cannot fail to enrich stock raisers and dairy farmers who know how to pursue their avocation. Sheep grazing offers another opening for en- terprise, and all the means that can be availed of by agriculturists anywhere, are specially adapted to the powers of Iowa culture, climate and endurance.
Iowa grapes and plums will before
long become specialties in the market, commanding good prices wherever obtainable, and other fruits also pros- per when due care has been observed in selecting the varieties hest adapted. It would be superfluous to go through with a list of the other productions of farm and garden which flourish in Bu- chanan county. Everything that can be raised in the temperate zone can be produced almost at pleasure in almost every county in this state.
Magnesian limestone is the chief mineral resource of this county for building purposes, and that is abund- ant. Granite boulders are more numer- ous here than in any other county in this state, varying in color from black to red, or what is more commonly known as Scotch granite. Many of the stone foundations in Buchanan county have heen formed from the broken fragments of these lost rocks from what is' described by Prof. Ow- en as "the Cedar Drift." Among other foundations thus buiit may he mentioned that of the state capitol at Des Moines, and part of the buildings of the asylum for the insane at Inde- pendence. Quick lime in endless quantity, good sand, and clay of the very best description for brick mak- ing, make up a sum total of building material which may suffice for the present, and to which the future is sure to add very largely when men have time to make a perfect inventory of nature's benefactions. Much more might be said of the mineral wealth of Buchanan county, but enough is as good as a feast.
Scarcely more than thirty years have elapsed since this fair territory was a terra incognita to the civilized world. There "wild in woods the noble sav- age ran," with all that there can be of nobility in his untaught, or rather iil taught, and treacherous nature. Sud- denly the face of the white man was seen in the forest, surveying its unim- proved wealth, and preparing the way for a greater and mightier nation. The taciturn, grunting - savage, heard the unwonted sound of laughter, in regions where that melody might not have been heard, since the long forgotten days of the mound builders, and he prepared to move further afield, away from his aggressive and more power- ful brother. The sound of the axe and the crash of falling -timber spoke of
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new life and animation. For the new comer there was in every bubbling spring a music full of the sweetness of the voices of children. The ripple of the river, flashing against its sides, spoke of towns that spring up amid the sterner sounds of daily toil, for a rich reward. in which all natural for- ces must become tributary to man's well doing. The territory of Iowa speedily won its advancement to the rank of a state and well deserved to partake in the struggles of a patriotic people.
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