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 36
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The school house at Tipton was, at one time, considered the best building in the state; it was erected at a cost of $45,000, is centrally situated in a beau-
tifully shaded park, and attracts ad. miring notice from every visitor. The public schools of the county approach a very high standard of excellence, and the teachers are far in advance of many who are located in metropolitan positions. Institutes arc very often held in the county, and by such means a very desirable spirit of emulation is maintained, from which all classes must eventually obtain excellent re- sults. In the rural districts the schools are seldom costly structures, but they i are customarily well adapted and sub- stantial.
There are no reliable records as to the earliest settlers in Cedar county, but tradition usually comes near the mark in such matters, and such ru- mors and evidences have been consult- ed for our history. It seems probable that the earliest permanent settler came to the territory in 1836, but the improvements at first projected were not very extensive. It was the day of small things, but the new comers made the best of circumstances.
The county was organized in the spring of 1838, an act to that effect having been passed by the territorial legislature in the preceding year, and the first election was held in March, 1838, and the county seat was located at Tipton, in the center of the county.
TIPTON, the county seat, is very hand- somely situated in the geographical center of the county, and it has three papers devoted to the interests of the city and county. The city comprises an area of over four hundred acres, located upon a high, gently rolling prairie, surrounded by farming lands, which are in the hands of men well qualified to make them do their best. The town was laid out in 1840, and set- tlement followed with little delay, but the growth has not been rapid.
CLARENCE is located on the line of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, in the northern part of the county. The town is incorporated, and is grad- ually increasing, its main importance arising from the fact that it is the de- pot used by agriculturists in a flourish- ing country, pending opportunities for shipment, and that fact leads to other business.
MECHANICSVILLE is a town of con- siderable size, which will rise into still greater importance in the course of the next decade. There is a station
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of the Chicago and Northwestern Rail- road at Mechanicsville, and a large business is transacted; it is destined to be the depot of the northwest of Ce- dar county.
LONDON is au incorporated town, not yet very large, but being situated on the railroad, on the eastern line of the county, it will probably have consid- erable growth.
STANWOOD is situated on the same line of road, eight miles north of Tip- ton, near Clarence.
DURANT is a good shipping station on the Chicago, Rock Island and Paci- fic Railroad, in the southeast of the county. A large business is done there, and the town is incorporated.
DOWNEY is situated about forty miles west of Davenport, on the line of road last named.
CENTERDALE is a station on the Bur- lington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railroad, in the southwest of Cedar county.
WEST BRANCH, on the same line of road, does a good and increasing bus- . iness in the midst of a good country.
MASSILLON is a station on the Dav- enport and St. Paul Railroad, in the northeast of the county, and a good shipping business is transacted there.
ROCHESTER at one time might have been the county seat, but for the fact that Tipton came out ahead. It is one of the old towns located on Cedar riv- er, eight miles from the county seat.
Cedar Bluffs, Gower's Ferry, Ireland and Springdale, are the small villages and postal stations in Cedar county.
Cerro Gordo County is a county of twenty-four square miles, sixteen con- gressional townships, with an area of 368,640 acres in northern Iowa. A sur- face pleasantly diversified, more par- ticularly in the eastern portion may be given as a general description of the region. The valleys of numerous creeks and streams are excellent local- ities for farming operations, and the county is altogether well drained and watered. The prairie lands are much broken, and in the northwest where the lowest range is found there are exten- sive marshes, but as a rule the prairie lands are dry, rolling, and high, conse- quently well drained. The marshes will admit of easy drainage should new comers hink that work desirable. There is no considerable stretch of
country anywhere in the county uufit for agricultural pursuits.
Clear and rapidly running streams sus- tained by springs, may be said to be the rule in Cerro Gordo, and this fea- ture of the river system affords more numerous and valuable sites for mill- ing purposes here than in many other counties. Machinery drawn by water power upon the river banks will in the course of a few years at the farthest make land here very valuable. The east part of the county has the lead in the possession of the largest streams, in greater number, than the west. Shell- rock river, with whose name we are already familiar, flows from north west to southeast through the county, and is quite a rapid stream, making its way through limestone heds and offering for improvement a great many excel- lent water powers.
Lime river, also known as Lime creek, is a tributary of the Shellrock river and the most important stream for the county, as it affords a water course thirty miles in length, and ex- clusive of its numerous tributaries, it traverses five townships, draining and watering a vast area of soil. Limestone furnishes the bed over which this creek or. river meanders, and that fact will help our readers to an idea of the geo- logical formation of the country. One of the most important tributaries of the last mentioned stream is Willow creek, an outlet in part of Clear lake. The northern half of Cerro Gordo is well supplied by the streams just enumer- ated and their several confluents. The southern part of the county is supplied by Coldwater creek, Beaver Dam creek and their branches.
Wells from ten to thirty feet deep will procure splendid water in any part of this county, and there are few sec- tions which have not one or more beautiful springs.
Clear lake is claimed to be the Sara toga of the west, and is the only con- siderable body of water in the county. Its length is about six miles, its great- est breadth three miles, and its average about two miles. The greatest depth yet ascertained is twenty-five feet, and fish in great variety can be obtained there. Pike, pickerel, buffalo, bass and other descriptions of the finny tribe afford employment to some and sport to others during the proper season. The waves which sometimes dash with
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
great force against the margin of the [ cereals and roots, good for man's suste- lake, have washed away the soil until nance, and to feed his cattle during winter, can be raised there as favorably as in any other part of Iowa. a wall of boulders has been reached which effectually stays encroachment. Several thousand acres of timber are massed at the south side and at the east end of the lake. The waters of the lake are at times as clear as lake Tahoe, and from that circumstance the distinctive name is taken. The bottom is covered with pebbles. The only outlet of the lake is Lime creek, which fed by such a body of water supplies an easily con- trolled and constant power. A flour- ing mill has been built to avail itself of this motive, but there is room for much more enterprise.
Timber is plentiful in the northern portion of the county, the common va- rieties being of course the bulk. Shell- rock river, Lime creek, Clear lake and extensions from the several locali- ties named are the main promoters of that liberal supply. In the east Owen's grove is mainly relied upon, and in the south Lime grove meets the wants of the settlers, as well for fuel as for lumber. The southwest is but ill sup. plied with wood, but extensive peat marshes give fuel in exhaustless quan- tities. Twenty thousand acres of tim- ber is said to be now available in the county, and however rapidly popula- tion may increase, that bulk of grow- ing wood will meet all wants.
Until the wonderful water powers just mentioned come to be fully im- proved, the main dependence of Cerro Gordo must be upon its fertile soil, at all times an indispensable adjunet to the highest order of prosperity. When in the march of events property shall have reached its appreciation, and the demand for mills and factories shall have become developed, the rivers will have additional duties to perform in the work of enriching, as well as feed- ing the dwellers on their banks.
Corn, wine and oil were in olden times considered necessary to tl the wealth of a people, but in modern days wine takes the place of oil with the major part of the dwellers in towns, with whom more potent and deadly stimulants are not deemed essential. Two years later a settlement was made on Lime creek, and from that time onward the work of colonization went on by slow and irregular progres- sion until land was put into the mar- ket for sale in 1854. The Indians have When we grow wiser, oil will become popular as an article of diet, and there- upon the demand for stimulants will gradually die. The soil of Cerro Gor- do can be made to produce corn and oil in sufficient quantity, and the fruits, | been mentioned as occasionally return-
Stone is plentiful as well for lime making as for direct use in building. Quarries of various extents have been opened in many parts of the county. The magnesian limestone which has been mentioned several times else- where, can be procurred in its very best condition in this county, and is used for the very highest purposes as dressed stone and in heavy masonry. Other varieties of stone differing in color and texture have been found, but it is not practicable nor desirable that our pages should be converted into an exhaustive catalogue.
Coal is not sought for in this county as the geological examination of the strata places the presence of that kind of fuel beyond hope, but timber is pres- ent, and can be raised in abundance, there are peat mosscs of great extent, and there are all the advantages of rail- road transit to bring coal from other parts of this continent, while the rivers and other streams will give a cheap and endless motive power for all ma- chinery.
Sand and elay are plentiful, and will be used largely to supplement the mineral wealth of building materals, already named.
Clear lake was the camping ground of the first settlers in this county, where rude cabins were built in 1851. Elk and buffalo calves were the im- mediate objects of their pursuit, but cireumstanees mastered their roving intentions and they remained for the winter in their beautiful selection to which they afterwards caused their families to be brought. For some con- siderahle time their nearest neigbors were fifty miles distant at Bradford, Chickasaw, where also only a very few families had congregated. Sometimes the Indians came among them revisit- ing old hunting grounds and fishing stations, but the red men were not ob- jects of disquietude among the adven- turous residents by Clear Lake.
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ing to Clear Lake, which was now neutral territory. These were mostly Winnebagoes who were friendly to the whites. Some time afterwards when the friendly Winnebagoes came there to camp and fish, the Sioux came down in force to exterminate them and some blood was shed, but the settlers inter. fered on behalf of the Winnebagoes, and worse consequences were avoided. The Sioux gave trouble subsequently, but prudent courage terminated the imbroglio.
Grazing and stock raising will long continue among the most profitable pursuits in Cerro Gordo county. Cli- mate, soil, and grasses unite with ex- cellent power to afford all that the good farmer wants to make those ven- tures successful and latterly the grow- ing demand for cheese has made dairy farming another and more valuable branch of the same occupation.
Few counties in northern Iowa are better endowed with facilities for travel and traffic than Cerro Gordo. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul com- pany by their Iowa and Dakota divis- ion pass through the county near the center from east to west, and at Mason City that branch crosses the central railroad of Iowa. The Mason City and Minnesota railroad runs to Austin direct, from the first named city, and the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota road also passes up the val- ley of the Shellrock. Thus nearly every section of the county is covered or reached by the iron road, and the steam horse is heard in the land.
MASON CITY, the county seat of Cerro Gordo, is built on the banks of Lime creek, a few miles northeast of the geographical center. Masonic Grove was the name first given to the site. most of the early settlers there in 1854, being reverent followers of Hiram, and pursuers of the long lost secrets which he so resolutely defended. The town has good timber, good water, ex- cellent powers for machinery and un- exceptional railway facilities, added to which may be mentioned, a flourishing agricultural country to which it is the best outlet, and the seat for the admin- istration of its county business. The town is very well built and the resi- dences are models of beauty. Most of the settlers came from New England and the eastern states. There is very little of the foreign element in the
population of Mason City. The pub- lic school is a large building of stone, occupying and adorning a prominent position, and the manner in which it is directed is highly satisfactory. There are few towns of its size doing a more extensive and profitable trade than Mason City, and the nearness of the town to Clear Lake, only about six miles distant, makes the city a rendez- vous for pleasure seekers during the season.
CLEAR LAKE was laid out in 1856, and being a station on the Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad with good hotel accomodations, it becomes every year more favored by visitors to the beauty of the lake which it overlooks.
PLYMOUTH is a town on the Shell- rock river, which was laid out in 1857.
ROCK FALLS is about three miles be- low Plymouth on the same river, and was laid out two years earlier than that town. The water powers avail- able here will some day enrich the place.
ROCKWELL is little more than a sta- tion on the Central railroad of Iowa, but being in the center of good farm- ing lands, the place must become im- portant.
PORTLAND is similarly promising and for like reasons, on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad.
Cherokee County is of the accus- tomed dimensions, twenty four miles square and its average need not be stated. The county is well watered and drained, having numerous streams which flow south and southeast through its best vallies. Little Sioux river is one of the largest of those streams, and it flows diagonally across the whole extent of the county. West Branch is a tributary of Little Sioux which flows through and drains sev- eral townships in the north. The west fork of Little Sioux flows through sev- eral townships before joining the main stream, and the waters are well sup- plied with fish excellent in quality and various in kind.
The surface of the county is rolling and broken, but little of it beyond the skill of the agriculturist to improve, and the soil is of excellent quality, be- ing of the kind known as bluff deposit with vegetable mould covering it, so that almost every growth desired by the farmers can be obtained from the
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willing earth. Little Sioux, Maple Creek and Mill Creek valleys are highly favored locations, a farm in either of which is provision for life for the fortunate occupants. There are fine groves of native timber along the several streams indicated and the scenery is largely improved thereby.
Boulders of granite, red quartzite and magnesian lime stone are scattered plentifully over the prairies, but there have been no quarries worth mention- ing exposed, but clay is procurable and apparently must have been in re- quest here ages ago, as many speci- mens of the pottery of the mound builders have been preserved here in their characteristic monuments. Their artificial eminences have attracted much notice along the course of Mill Creek, and it is possible that these burrows may be explored with advantage when their importance becomes more immediately apparent to the settlers. We should be as much interested in the records of our civli- zed predecessors on this continent as in the movements of the Babylonians, or the Ninevites as revealed by an- cient buildings buried beneath the dust of centuries, but there is a time for everything.
Beautiful water, where it does not force itself through the soil at the foot of the wayfarer, can always be obtained by sinking a well to a depth of a very few feet. The climate of this portion of Iowa challenges comparison with any other county in the state. Mill, sites can be found sufficient to cover all demands.
The Milford, Massachusetts, Emi- gration Society, in the spring of 1856, sent a colony from that town to make a settlement in this portion of Iowa, every member being entitled to one hundred acres. The best timbered land of the Little Sioux river was thus selected at one heat, and the associa- tion went on with its work upon the cooperative principle, so far as that every member had an interest in the general prosperity. They were not all well qualified to become farmers, many having a positive genius for shoemak. ing, to which eventually they found their way back, greatly to the advan- tage of the understandings of their neighbors.
massacre, they made a raid through this county, seizing the weapons of the settlers and offering violence to some who showed resistance, but no lives were lost during that time in Cherokee county. The effect of that raid and of the massacre which immediately fol- lowed, in 1857, cooperated with the great rebellion soon to commence to retard settlement here and elsewhere, or to call off those who had put their hands to the plow, and in any case to prevent improvements. There was a kind of block house built where the town of Cherokee now stands, and a band of soldiers there kept the peace of the neighborhood for a considerable time, but the ghost raised by the Spirit Lake massacre could not be exorcised. Until the year 1863 there were very few whites in the county.
Pilot Rock is the best noted feature in the scenery of Cherokee county, and has long been a landmark for travelers across the prairies. The rock is a pinnacle of hard red granite, from which the top has been broken at dif- ferent times, the detached masses being scattered around its base, until the actual top is about twenty feet from the surface of the soil, and is a plain, tending toward a basin in the middle. This rock belongs to the boulder sys- tem of the glacial period; but having been in the country long before the oldest inhabitant, it is by many treated as a native; hence the broken and dc- moralized aspect which Pilot Rock presents to the world at large. The rock is deeply imbedded in the soil.
CHEROKEE is the county seat, and is located in an almost central position, at a point where the Dubuque and Sioux City railroad is intersected by the Little Sioux river, about midway between Sioux City and Fort Dodge. The site of the village is picturesque, as it is surrounded by gentle bluffs, which protect it partially from rude blasts, without shutting out the beauty of the landscape. The Sioux river winds its way to the south through the valley, going to its home in the bosom of Missouri. The waters of that stream are clear as crystal, and well stocked with fish. The timher on the banks of that river adds materially to the charms of the landscape, and it may be as well to say here that Cherokee county, taken for all in all, has more
When the Sioux were on their way to the perpetration of the Spirit Lake I wooded land than ten of its neighbor-
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ing counties massed together. The water in this county is equal to the best in Iowa. The village was located in August, 1870, although there had been a few buildings put up prior to that date. The first school house was erected in 1873, and that institution is presided over with due care to the best interests of the pupils. There are sev- eral handsome church edifices in the place.
The growth of the county seat has been rapid but yet substantial, and it still continues to push ahead, every year adding materially to its business premises and the detached residences of its wealthier families. There is a very fine bank building and two news- papers are published in the village.
AURELIA is a village on the railroad, situated in the eastern part of Chero- kee county, and surrounded by fertile prairie, very beautiful to behold. The main support of the village arises from the facilities which it can afford for the shipment of produce.
HAZARD is a small village, only six miles from the county seat, and situ- ated on the same line of railroad. The country around Hazard has a beautiful appearance, and being fertile, as well as moderately improved, the agricul- turists avail themselves largely of the village as a point of shipment for travel and freight.
MARCUS is a village much like Haz- ard, except for the fact that it has a fine little stream, known as Eleven Mile Run, which passes through the whole extent of the hamlet. The situation of the station on the same line of road as Hazard, six miles west of that place, makes it an object with many settlers to effect their shipment at that point.
PILOT ROCK and WASHTE are post- office stationsonly at present, but there are indications that before long resi- dences will surround these often vis- ited localities.
Chickasaw County contains an area of five hundred and four square miles, in the northwest part of the state, in the third tier from the Mississippi river. The surface of Chickasaw county is more level than most of the counties named, but yet undulating pleasantly in most parts. A narrow strip of country in the south western township, near Cedar river, is the only rolling land in the county. The coun-
ty is traversed by no Jess than seven streams of considerable size, flowing parallel to each other toward the south- east, and these, with their several trib- utaries and branches, drain and water the range of country abundantly. The rapid currents of these several streams have not cut deep into their channels so hard is the bed of rock which they traverse. The water powers of Chick- asaw county are very valuable, and a fair average of them have already been taken up and partially improved, but there will remain a large opening for the employment of capital and labor for many years to come, when manu- factories are demanded to supply the wants of the county, furnishing to the agriculturist an invaluable local mar- ket for all his produce. That time can- not be distant for Chickasaw.
Following the several streams is a supply of timber, but not more than enough to meet the demands of a small population ; and when the country be- comes more thickly settled, it will be necessary for the farmers to plant arti- ficial groves, from which they will obtain good returns. The railroads have given facilities for the procure- ment of pine lumber from a distance, and the use of such material is more conducive to economy than the con- sumption of native woods.
The presence of so many streams in the county would make it difficult to understand the poverty of timber men- tioned, but for the fact, that tradition and experience make known the preva- lence of prairie fires in the days pre- ceding settlement, and these visitations were terribly destructive to wood. Now that settlers possess the land and have adopted customary precau- tions to prevent conflagrations there are many small groves springing up, and within twenty years from date, even although no planting should be undertaken, the county will be- come much better wooded in propor- tion to an increased population than it is now, for the small numbers lo- cated. Along the Cedar river the best helts and groves are located in the southwest of Chickasaw county.
The general character of the geo- logical formation shows limestone in different tints and thicknesses, and in some of the quarries the quality of stone exposed is very good. Materials for hrickmaking can be found in
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almost every loeality, and lime being } is found to be the best hold in this easily obtainable, building can go on apace.
When the county first claimed at- tention as a field for settement, it was feared that a large portion of the land was too low and wet for agricultural purposes, but upon more careful in- spection it was discovered that the circumstances which converted large areas into marsh were mainly aeci- dental or trivial, and good drained land is now the rule. Many of the swamps complained of stood on high prairie, and in consequence, the very simplest operation sufficed to carry off the surplus moisture, leaving a soil of great value ready for profitable oe. cupation. The natural drainage of the county is good, but the rivers hav- ing been unable to cut deep lines into the hard limestone, it often happened that the fall did not suffice to keep the land dry. The soil and subsoil are all that the most exigent farmer could desire. The wild grasses which have flourished on the surface for een- turies sometimes rotting and oceason- ally burnt off, have left a coating of vegetable mould upon a deep black loam which will not require dressing of any kind until some years of culti- vation have reduced its richness. The subsoil is of drift deposit underlaid by clay, gravel and sand, more or less intermixed. This formation is not well adapted for drainage, but a few trenches in convenient positions sup- ply every shortcoming. As soon as cultivation commenced, the faults of the county began to disappear, and there is now a very general content- ment with the drainage possibilities of the county. The plow is the best remedial agent. The land which has cost most trouble in breaking it into service is found to be most enduring now that it is available for use, and the productiveness of the farm lands in Chickasaw, in proportion to their extent, will bear favorable comparison with those of any other settled county in the union.
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