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 42
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The mines were opened in due course in June, 1833, under govern- ment superintendence, and every miner was allowed a license in accordance with regulations such as had been set- tled in 1830 by the first comers, upon payment to the authorities of six per cent. of the value of manufactured lead. The tax was a source of com- plaining, and was abandoned ten years afterwards in . compliance with the pupular voice, which held that there should be no special imposition on one class. The European system of exacting a royalty on minerals taken from the earth does not consort well with the instincts of a free people un- able to perceive a radical difference between the toil which wins its bread from the bowels of the globe, and that which reaps the same sustenance upon the surface of the soil. The idea is certainly well founded.
From the year 1833, regular settle- ment was commenced at Dubuque. Cholera prevailed there, but the people who had come by hundreds concluded to remain. Other business pursuits were entered upon and there soon be- gan to be a large and varied pupula- tion. The city was named as it now remains in 1834.
Settled administration could not ob- tain full force in a new and somewhat lawless community. Gamblers came to the country to win or to steal the earnings of the miners, and arms were in every man's hands. Strong drinks were consumed without -tint, and when quarrels arose the strongest or the quickest man in the mel ee administer- ed his distempered idea of justice by
murdering his victim or his assailant. Sunday being free from ordinary toil was the time most frequently made terrible by quick conflicts and sudden outrages. Out of that condition of af- fairs Lynch law frequently arises even in the present day, and it was still more so when administration was weaker than we know it. Just the conditions of life which in the mining districts of California, Montana and elsewhere made human existence un- certain, operated now in Iowa. Some men were hanged after a summary popular trial, some were condemned to be whipped, and others subjected to various punishments for offenses, and of course the substitute for unre- strained crime was but one remove from the offending cause which it aimed to remove. Thus unfortunately, we too often find justice and injustice blended in human affairs. The regu- lators in the west, the vigilance com- mittees, away toward the golden gates, and all other such bodies commit crimes in the eye of the law, and even sometimes in the sight of God in their anxiety to put down violence and sin, but the motive cannot fail to modify the judgments of men upon their acts.
Many crimes were committed in quarrels and exasperations which arose out of disputed titles and ended in vendettas. In one case the assassina- tion of the French miscreant Marat by Charlotte Corday was paralleled in the attempted murder of a young man who had vowed that he would kill the brother of a heroic young woman, be- cause some other member of the same family had shot down his father or relative. Such quarrels with their in- terminable list of assassinations are not entirely unknown among half savage settlers even in our day. In communities so lawless the man who is prompt and unscruplous in the use of weapons, if he is moderately ob- servant of the demands of justice in other respects, procures a large amount of respect, but sometime, early or late, he falls a victim to the law of human nature which long since was written in the book: "He that sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed." Happily the growth of society removes us further from such lawless and deplorable proceedings as Lynch Jaw-
Lawful authority came into force in
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1836, and competent men were chosen as justices. Other fruits of organiza- tion followed in due course. The honor of being the capital was given to Belmont instead of to Dubuque, but none the less the latter city rejoiced in the advent of settled rule. Settle- ment now increased with great rapid- ity, large numbers coming from the earstern states and cities. A library association was formed in 1835, as one of the best results of the new influx, and the business importance of the city of Dubuque has in -- creased with every year. The popu- lation numbered two thousand in 1841, when the iron horse was yet a stranger in the northwest, and the rivers were the main lines of travel everywhere in that great region.
Iowa became a state in 1846, and in the five years which had elapsed, the population of the city had increased to two thousand five hundred. The number now in the city is twenty-five thousand.
Schools have been an object with settlers in Dubuque ever since 1834, when military rule being dispensed with, the people had leisure to think of their best interests. In the year 1833, the first school was inaugurated, but the busy energies of the people be- ing engrossed through the week in business pursuits and mining, a Sun- day school only was practicable with many sections of the population. The early pioneers had built a school house on Jackson Square, but there were only thirty pupils on the roll during the first term, and that number fell to twenty-five in the next. Many simi- lar efforts, the results of personal enter- prise, followed until the year 1855, when the city charter constituted a board of education, and since that date, the care manifested in the proper administration of the best interests of youth have been such as to merit the greatest praise.
To give a detailed notice of the va- rious newspapers published in the city of Dubuque, would demand more space than we can give in justice to the numerous objects of interest which demand our attention, consequently we leave that branch of the public ser- vice which is so well able to speak for itself untouched in these pages, with this remark only that as a whole, it stands unsurpassed by the press of
any city in the northwest of equal di- mensions and wealth.
Railroads and the river have made Dubuque the great city which it has become, and the same agencies, added to the mineral, agricultural, and man- ufacturing capabilities of the sur- rounding country must in time vastly improve the growth which has been attained. Business grows every year, and with it the capacity for further transactions, but the general reader would not thank us for culling from di- rectories and almanacs the detailed figures which obscure the brilliant progress now visible in the city, and we leave such furniture to pages of less interest. The first railroad ar- rived on the shore opposite Dubuque in 1855, but the bridge over the river was not completed and opened until ten years later, the Dubuque and Dun- leith company having taken up that work upon the failure therein of the Illinois Central railroad. The first railroad west from the city was the Dubuque and Sioux City in 1856, since carried to the Missouri river. The Dubuque and Southwestern followed speedily, and Dubuque is thus connec- ted with Cedar Rapids. The Chica- go, Clinton and Dubuque road and Dubuque and Minnesota have since been added, but the citizens are agitat- ing for another line from Dubuque to Milwaukee by narrow gauge, and there is a great likelihood that the scheme will before long be accom- plished.
Gas lights the streets and the build- ings of Dubuque city, and street rail- ways are in operation with sufficient success to suggest further extensions.
DYERSVILLE is a town beautifully located on the line of the Illinois Centrail railroad, on the extreme west of the county, twenty-nine milcs .from Dubuque. The possession of such a site secures a large measure of prosperity, as it brings to the town an immense quantity of business. Shippers, availing themselves of the lines of communication east and west, to Dubuque and its connections on the one hand, and on the other Chicago, the metropolis of the northwest, with the eastern states, cannot fail to make large purchases in the same locality. The surrounding country is fertile and productive, and Dyersville receives a great contribution of grain, fruit, and
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC. PHIL A.
usingl
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other country productions, besides do- ing a vast trade in live stock of all kinds, and beef and pork. The rolling prairie is intermixed with much tim- bered land near the town. The soil is light near the town, but fertile, and further south a deep clayey loam is equal to almost any amount of vege- tal growth; to the north the soil is very similar, and the farmers have good reason to be pleased with their location. The Big Maquoketa sends its north branch into this section of country, and there are valuable water powers which will hereafter contribute very much to the prosperity of the town. The first settlers came to this site in 1837, and other families follow- ing in the next and subsequent years, the town was platted in 1854 upon the site which it now occupies. Cholera in 1855, and the crisis in 1857-8 fell heavily upon the little community, so much so that the year 1863 found Dy- ersville only emerging into the sun- light of prosperity, but its population is now over twelve hundred, and it feels rich enough to have ordered the erection of a school house which is to cost $8,000, furnished with modern ap- pliances and properly adapted to its important work. The public works undertaken, among which has to be enumcrated an iron truss bridge which cost $4,500, have all been carried out on funds obtained for saloon licenses, which are thus made conducive in one way to the welfare of the community, which is injured by their operation ; but perhaps as long as it may continue to be admitted that men will not be made moral by acts of congress, the manner indicated is the only way gen- erally available for improving the vices and indulgencies of a people. The town was not incorporated until 1872, but it already has a good show- ing of business premises, some nice residences, and improvements of other kinds, which attest the go ahead char- acter of the people.
Emmett County was named after the great Irishman, Robert Emmett, who was identified with the Irish re- bellion toward the end of the last cen- tury, when the people of that country, intoxicated by promises of French support, and carried away by the suc- cess which in other countries had fol- lowed the popular upheaval, after the
example of the republican movement in Paris, believed that they were strong enough to defy the power of Great Britain. There was a brief moment of sunshine and then all became dark as night. The leaders of the rebellion, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Robert Emmett, were condemned to death, and suffered the penalty of the law after very briefly figuring in their uni- forms of green and gold, the distin- guishing insignia of the new republic. The name of Emmett deserved this passing notice at the hands of a true lover of liberty and patriotism.
The county contains four hundred and eight square miles, and is situated in the northern tier of the counties of the state. The Des Moines flows through Emmett county in a south- easterly course; another branch of the same river flows from lake Okaman- puda, also in a southeasterly direction, in the northeast of the county. The tributaries of these streams drain a large portion of Emmett county. Small lakes are found in many sec- tions, among which the Iowa, in the northeast, and Tuttle lake, six miles west, are famous for their clear water and beautiful scenery. Swan lake is near the center of the county, and is an irregular shaped body, many miles long. The western part of the county contains Elmer, Grass, Crane, Eagle, High, Ryan's, Cheever's, Twelve Mile, and Clear lakes. Nearly all of the lakes and streams are well timbered ou their banks, and in many places there are large groves; consequently it is one of the best wooded counties in northwestern Iowa. Des Moines river valley is a delightful farming region, lying just east of the Great Watershed, and it therefore occupies part of the highest lands in the state. Pure water can be found anywhere, either in springs or by the well system. There are beds of peat in the county, but timber is so plentiful that no demand has yet been made upon such fuel. Stone is scarce, if we except the bould- ers deposited here during the glacial period, which can be found scattered over the prairies in great profusion. These masses of mineral have been largely used for building materials, and from some of them good lime can be made. The borders of the lakes have boulders in great quantities. The country is well adapted for graz-
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ing and for all the agricultural pro- ducts.
ESTHERVILLE was the location of the first settlers in 1856. The county was organized in 1859, when its popu- lation was one hundred and and five, and the county seat was located here at once. South of this town there is a large colony of Norwegians, who have been settled here since 1860. There are fine groves in the vicinity, follow- ing the course of the Des Moines river, on which it is built. The river at this point gives admirable water powers, and the country around is well im- proved with large farms, which are profitably worked. The town was laid out in 1858, but there have been addi- tions since that date. Shortly after the terrible massacre at Spirit Lake in 1857, it was thought advisable to estab- lish a military force here to defend the settlers from possible onslaughts of the red men. A fort was erected, and many buildings necessary for the ac- commodation of the troops; siuce which time the growth of the place has been slow but steady. The future of Estherville is not problematical; it must progress year by year, and when its water powers have become fully improved, it will be a very wealthy town.
Fayette County is of the largest size in the state, containing some seven hundred and twenty square miles. It is situated second in county tiers from the northern and eastern boundaries of Iowa. There is a wide variety of scene within the limits of Fayette county, and a corresponding breadth of productions rendered possible by ever changing conditions.
The northeastern portion and the east of the county are marked by bold and prominent bluffs, bearing forests of timber, which indicate the courses of the rivers and streams in those sec- tions. Sometimes the groves stand back from the rivers, where the con- tinuous action of more powerful streams, many centuries ago, have hollowed out broad and fertile vallies, which are frequently of exceeding beauty. Away to the southwest the bluffs disappear, and the "change comes o'er the spirit of the dream " which converts the land into undulat- ing prairie, broadening out in illimit- able distance as it retires from the eye.
Another marked transformation is found as the country retreats from the hilly region skirting the Mississippi, and becomes high rolling prairie.
About one-fourth of the county is covered with excellent timber of large growth, the best groves being found in the eastern and northern sections. The varities are such as are commonly found in Iowa, and some pine lands are found, but there is not much of that description of timber anywhere in Iowa. The soil is very much varied. Otter creek crosses West Union town- ship diagonally, and south of that di- vision the soil is light and in some places quite sandy, but it is very pro- ductive. On the north of that creek there is a soil of rich black loam, which is marvelously productive, the yield of cereals being equal to the best known precedents, and other crops in the same proportion. Cultivated grasses grow well in this soil, and grazing farms are very successful. On the prairles the native grasses flourish, and these are uniformly found very nutritious. On most of the principal streams there are water powers of much value, and their worth has been demonstrated by experiment in some few instances, but to nothing near the limits of capacity. The manufactur- ing interests of the future will make full use of the water powers which now run idly along the river beds of Fayette county. Turkey river offers more elegible sites, in proportion to its length, than any other stream in the state. The north, northeastern, nortli- western and center of the county are watered well by beautiful springs, aud by numerous streams of various sizes.
Limestone is prominent in the geo- logical formations of the county, the Niagara limestone being visible in great portions of the land; on Otter creek the deposit is visible to the depth of one hundred and thirty-five feet. Galena limestone is also found; and another kind, very hard and almost white. Boulders of large size are also found in the south and west parts of the county, evidently dating from the glacial period. In the northern part of the county there is prairie land without one stone. The significance of this formation will be apparent to every geological student.
The county is agricultural, corn be- ing most prominent, and followed
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closely by wheat, oats and barley. the world can well pause for a time; Rye can be raised, but the crop is not profitable. Live stock, beef, mutton and pork are shipped every fall in considerable quantities.
There are in the county one hundred and fifty eight schools not graded, and six graded schools. There are over three hundred teachers in the county, and of these, two hundred and twenty are ladics. With so many schools and capable teachers, it will not astonish our readers to learn that there is no jail in the county. When there are persons from parts unknown who be- come obstreperous, they are shipped to the adjoining county of Clayton, where a jail, large enough for both communities, has been erected. The first court house built in this county was cremated in September, 1872; and a new building has been raised on the same site, at a cost of $10,000. There is a poor farm in the town of Center, six miles from West Union, the county seat, and there are only seventeen in- mates.' The farm is valued at $11,000, and is said to be well managed. There is an efficient agricultural society in Fayette county, whose grounds are near West Union.
The county was opened for settle- ment immediately after the ratification of the Black Hawk purchase in 1833; but the Winnebagoes remained on their reserve, near hy, until the year 1848. Upon these lands the sturdy pioneers entered, beating down all obstacles to the onrush of a later civ- ilization, and we have entered into their labors. An Indian trader erected the first cabin in the county, and that edifice still remains in Illyria town- ship. The spring of 1841 is supposed to have been the date of the building. There were other trading posts soon after this time, but that in Illyria town- ship is credited with having been first on the list.
The site of the town of Fairfield was the first permanent settlement; but there are many disputes on this subject, as claims have been made that before the trading posts, already men- tioned, had been commenced, a man named O'Rear had erected a house and broken some of the prairie for cultivation. The evidence is not con- clusive, and we are bound to ask, " who shall decide when doctors disagree ?" Happily, it is a question upon whichi
but some historiographer, centuries hence, may thank us for this hint when the dispute will rank among the mysteries of history with the site of 'Troy, the personality of Homer, and the resident in the Iron mask, con- cerning whom, Dumas, the elder, has been eloquent in vain.
The county was organized in 1850, and the county seat was located at
WEST UNION, a flourishing little town on the line of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota railroad, by which it has speedy transit, more or less direct, to all the great markets of the world. The country around West Union is very fertile and well occupied by a farming community which gives life and strength to the county seat. Experience has proved, beyond question, that a railroad is worth every other advantage, except a fertile country, to a western or north- western town, and West Union is a case in point. The court house stands on a square of four acres, around which the business houses have been erected, many of which are fine brick blocks. Many of the men in business here have been on the ground over twenty years, but until 1872 there was no railway communication, conse- quently the town was at a stand still. Since then its progress has been rapid.
"Knob Prairie " was the early name of the site of West Union, the title being given because of the elevation of ground on which the court house stands, as a light set upon a hill. The names given by some of the early set- tlers were such as could not fail to sink deep into the memory. "Shin bone alley " may not be considered elegant, however vividly descriptive, yet that was the name of a locality now covered by the more aristocratic appel- lation Elgin. " Knob Prairie " was a name likely to be remembered, and it described the country well, as the configuration there to be observed was certainly singular.
The town was laid out in 1849, but resurveyed in 1850, and residences were soon afterwards built there. The first school term was in 1851-2, but since that time the day of small things has passed away. There is now a graded school in West Union which cost $7,000, and it is under the manage- ment of a principal and four able
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assistants, who teach Latin, Greek, and the higher mathematics, in addition to the commoner branches of daily train- ing. There is a select private school also in the town, well supported, and a very beneficial emulation between the two establishments is of service to the public.
West Union has a fine Driving Park Association, with an excellent track, near the town, which is much used by the members and their friends. The organization was effected only in 1874, but the benefit of such an incentive to outdoor exercise among the townspeo- ple is already to be seen. The tone of society is all that could be desired.
The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railroad, already men- tioned, was completed in 1872, and the outlet for produce thus afforded has given a great impetus to the business value of West Union, which is now substantially the best shipping point in the county. The table of shipments for 1874, now lying before us is an ad- mirable commentary on the growth possible to an inland town, with good facilities for travel.
FAYETTE is built on a plat of ground nearly a mile square, bounded by well timbered bluffs on two sides, and on another by a high ridge which serves to protect the town from the strong wings which sweep over some parts of Iowa during winter. The towu is ex- ceedingly well sheltered, and conveni- ently laid out, the streets broad, and running east, west, north, and south, or nearly so. The Davenport and St. Paul Railroad connects the town with the rest of the Union by making its terminus there. The country around is picturesque and fertile, and the Vol- ga river, with water powers sufficient for milling and other mechanical pur- poses, offers supreme inducements to manufacturers at many points in its career. The first settlement dates from 1846, and the village was platted ten years later. The town of Westfield - was platted about a mile from Fayette in 1851, when there was a saw mill erected near that spot, but the place did not thrive. There were many local jealousies, but eventually the weaker of the two locations was absorbed by the other. There was a terrible fear of an intended Indian massacre in 1847, but the event from which that idea took its rise was a merely personal
conflict, in which a trader was killed by some Indians, to obtain possession of some whisky which he refused. The murder occurred near the town of Fayette, but nothing came of the inci- dent beyond the scare which it caused.
There is now in the town, and has been since 1856, an institution known as the Upper Iowa University, which cost, in cheap times, $32,000, after the land had been donated. The institu- tion is under the supervision of the M. E. Conference of Upper Iowa, and is very well conducted, giving valuable results in the best class of training. The town was incorporated in 1847.
CLERMONT is located on the Turkey river, and is a very flourishing village on the line of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway. The village is embosomed amid hills, which protect and beautify the place, and the country is very fruitful. The first set- tlement was made here in 1849. The Indians had not left that region, and some time elapsed before that desira- ble event occurred, but immediately afterwards there were mills and other works erected to make capital of the water powers there to be obtained. Bricks are manufactured here in very considerable quantities, and much wheat is ground into excellent flour, which is shipped to all parts of the state. The bricks made here are equal in quality to those which have caused Milwaukee to be called the "Cream City," and Clermont is frequently men- tioned as the Brick City. The first school taught here, and perhaps the first in the county, was in 1850, when a school term of twelve weeks offered the foundation for other and wider effort in the same direction. The country round the village of Clermont is prosperous, and the villagers partici- pate largely in the success of their neighbors, as the shipments of live stock, wheat, flour, and other produce continue to testify.
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