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 51
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The first white scttler in Bellevue seems to have camped there in 1835, building a cabin in the fall of that year, and the town was laid out imme- diately. The present population is about two thousand, and the amount of business done in the town, shipping hy river and rail, and in other ways, will find profitable employment for an increasing number every year. There is only one paper in Bellevue, and it is very well conducted.
SABULA is also on the Mississippi, at the southeast extremity of Jackson county, where a considerable amount of business is transacted. The river is a valuable aid to the prosperity of the town. A steam ferry runs from this point to Savannah, consequently there are more intimate relations between Illinois and this center of population than between the same town and any of its neighbors in this state. The town has the facilities of two roads to carry the immense aggregate of pro- duce which comes in from the sur- rounding country. The Chicago, Clin- ton and Dubuque Company have a sta- tion here, and the Sabula, Ackley and Dakota road maintains here one of its largest depots. Besides these outlets and inlets for prosperous life, the citi- zens have improved their roads within the corporate limits by means of a great and wise outlay in macadam- ized roads, which give excellent ap- proaches from the railroad stations and from the agricultural districts. The name of the town, Sabula, signifies sand in the Indian tongue, and that word best describes the shifting nature of the deposit upon which the place has been built, hence the necessity for good road making. The first name of
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the place was Cariport, then it was called Charleston, but when properly laid out in 1840, the present appella- tion was conferred upon the rising city. There had been settlers here for three years before that event. The in- corporation of Sabula was not effected until 1864.
The public schools of Sabula are quite extensive and well conducted. There is a central school building and there are two ward school houses, and the combined institution is graded in three departments. There are other persons engaged in the work of tuition here, outside the public schools, and the spirit of emulation operates whole- somely in the several establishments.
The amount of enterprise displayed by Sabula in all matters of business, must ensure steady and rapid growth. The aspects of the busy streets and thriving merchants, the mills in full work, the abattoirs and pork packing facilities, with many other signs of in- dustry, well applied, are full of high- est promise. There is one newspaper published in the town, depending for its circulation mainly upon the farm- ing community which makes its head- quarters here. The support accorded to the sheet is good, and it is in high favor among advertisers.
ANDREW is a town on the old stage road from Dubuque on the line to Da- venport, and it stands in the center of a fine farming country. For some time this was the county seat of Jack- son county, as we have already set forth in describing the perturbations of the seat of justice. The name of the town was fixed upon in honor of Andrew Jackson.
The first resident on this site built him a home in the year 1837, and the growth of the place has been slow but steady. There was a newspaper pub- lished here at one time some years ago, but it was removed to Bellevue when some the changes occurred among county office holders.
There is a good public school in the town and the Lutherans have a school which is in great repute for the facil- ity it affords for the study of German. The present population of Andrew is about four hundred; and there is a very well conducted literary society here.
WATERFORD is a small town in South Fork township, in which there are
sawmills, flouring mills and some very prosperous business houses. Churches and schools are well cared for by this population.
CANTON is on the Maquoketa river, about twenty-eight miles from Du. buque, to the southwest. There are many splendid sites for water powers at this point, and the country around is of splendid quality for farms.
FULTON is about thirty miles south of Dubuque, and is located on the Maquoketa in the midst of a very fine agricultural country, with which it carries on a very nice local trade. There is good timber in this locality, and the river can be made very useful when manufactories are located here.
OTTER CREEK is the name of a small town on the water course, whose name it bears, standing in the township of Otter Creek, surrounded by some of the best farm lands in the county.
LA MOTTE is about sixteen miles from Dubuque, bearing south, doing a fair retail trade among the farmers in the immediate neighborhood.
STERLING is a post office village thirty miles from the town of Andrew, to the southeast, chiefly important for the post office, but some general bus- iness is done here.
MONMOUTH stands on the Iowa Mid- land Railroad, in the western part of Jackson county, and there is a fair shipping business transacted here with the usual average of retail trade at- tendant thereupon.
There are some other small villages which must be named, among which are : Mill Rock, Van Buren, Wyckliffe, Mount Algor, Spring Brook, Garry Owen, Cottonville, Zwingle, Saint Don- atus, Union Center, Miles and Preston.
Jasper County contains an area of seven hundred and twenty square miles, lying near the center of the state of Iowa, only about twenty miles from the capital city, and crossed by the best railroads that connect this state with the rest of the Union.
The drainage of the county is toward the southeast, and in that direction all the principal streams flow in their main bearing, with occasional wind- ings caused by local variationa of sur- face. The two streams, North Skunk and South Skunk, which eventually roll their malodorous named bodies together, give many sites well adapted
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for mill sites, and other such works. High and rolling country prevails in Jasper county. There are indications in the broad and level valleys on either side of the several streams, that at some time in the past the rivers were much larger, or had a softer surface on which to work during the times when the bands overflowed, but at present the water courses flow through wide valleys of great fertility, in which the alluvium permits no marsh nor swamp to exist, and the river bed car- ries off all superfluous moisture, leav- ing the region exquisitely adapted for the labor and profit of the husband- man.
This county has the peculiarities of soil which have been already noted as betonging to the drift period, and in such lands the farmer finds an exhaust- less fountain of wealth, which cannot be readily affected by extremes of heat or cold, rain or drouth. It would be folly to enumerate the productions common to this county ; they are such as have been mentioned repeatedly in describing other counties. Suffice it to say that this is one of the best regions in fertile Iowa. The area of timber varios considerably in different coun- ties, although all of them may be equally productive, because such a for- tunate accident as an impassable stream or other obstacle at a particular point might have saved a wide ex- panse of country from denudation, when all the rest of the region had been repeatedly swept by fire, and for that reason it is necessary to particu- larize the average of timbered land in the different areas. This county has nearly thirty thousand acres of wood land well distributed in the several districts, and planting has been com- menced in some few places to supple- ment the native growths which are springing up in many parts of the prairie. Naturally the best growths are found in the neighborhood of run- ning water, and the best groves which are now being planted have been lo- cated near such advantages.
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Jasper county lies not exactly with- in but partly upon the productive coal fields of Iowa, the deposit to the cast ceasing to be workable profitably after Richland township is passed. There is a peculiar sand stone found as far east as Kellogg and along Rock creek which forms part of the well known
coal measures, and that rock is exten- sively quarried for building purposes. Limestone of the same system crops up in the beds of many streams in the county, being useful in the same way to builders. Mines are worked in sev- eral townships, as for instance at Mound Prairie, Palo Alto, Richland and Fairview. Newton communicates with the Palo Alto mines by a little railroad of little more than three miles. The mines lie to the south of Newton. The workings will go on increasing as . the seams are of the lower coal meas- ures certain to be become more and more productive as the mines are opened.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pa- cific Railroad Company operates to a limited extent in this county, and the same may be said of the Central rail- road of Iowa, the Des Monies Valley railroad, and the Chicago, Newton and Southwestern. The first named line was commenced in 1866, much to the joy of residents in many parts of this county, but even now there is room for much wider diffusion of the ad- vantages of travel and traffic. Next to to railroads, the most important factor in the prosperity of a people, is the public school, under some circum- stances, and, always if the delay in one case must be great, it would be better to defer railroads than to post- pone education, but happily in this county both advantages can be se- cured at the same time, neither being an obstacle to the other. In Jasper county there were one hundred and seventy-three common schools in 1873, and of these, seven offered the ad- vantages of grading to the people. The value in school property was esti- mated at $165,000, and the general use- fulness of these invaluable establish- ments took very high rank even for Iowa.
The first white settlement in this county dates from 1843. The Indians of the Musquaka tribe were not yet out of their old hunting grounds, there was a village at Indian creek and another of some extent at Newton, but the site for settlement had been purchased from the Red men and the rush could not be stayed until the old occupants had departed to Kansas. On the " di- vide " where Monroe has since been built the first log cabin was erected in May, 1843, and at the same date .here
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were soldiers coming into the territory to occupy the fort at Des Moines.
There was a grove where the first settler halted and made his home; usually such spots attracted settlement, as it was much more easy to build close to the timbered land than to haul the material to a distance before using it. There was also an advantage in the shelter from piercing winds and in the nearness of fuel which the forest lands offered, besides, the beauty of such spots which must always have a charm for the least sensitive of man- kind. The broad prairie lands had not half the attracting power of these reservoirs of fuel upon the surface, but could they have known that under the bare soil from which they turned with disproval there were vast areas of coal waiting for exploitation, and that the soil itself, denuded though it was, had slumbering in it a fertility unsurpassed by such lands in any part of this con- tinent, their verdicts would probably have differed to some extent, but the woods would yet have been their first love. The groves in Jasper county are nearly all identified with the names of early settlers. The organi- zation of the county was effected in 1846, under an act of the territorial leg- islature, and the county seat was after- wards located at Newton, the place be- ing called Newton City. Before the present very handsome court house was erected at a cost of $27,000, there had been two primitive structures which in succession had supplied the rulers of that portion of the territory with their place of administration. The public square in which the county seat has located its court house is ap- propriately adorned with forest trees, enhancing the beauty of the stately ed- ifice.
ous, and there are extensive brick making yards in many localities.
There are two agricultural societies in the county, one having excellent fair grounds at Prairie City, and anoth- er whose headquarters are at Newton, have extensive grounds, well fenced and in good order, with well appoint- ed offices for the transaction of the business of the association. Both so- cieties have had very successful exhi- bitions.
NEWTON, the county seat of Jasper county, stands on the line of the Chi- cago, Rock Island and Pacific Rail- road, about thirty five miles from Des Moines. The town is in the center of a fine agricultural country, and the population is estimated at two thou- sand four hundred. There are some productive mines near the town, and coal, which is one of the specialties of this county, will contribute very materially to the prosperity of New- ton.
The site of the county seat is very handsome, and the high, undulating ground upon which it stands has been very much improved in scenic effect by the erection of large and graceful dwellings, ornamented by shade trees, and surrounded by grounds dotted with choice shrubberies. The court house, and the square in which it stands have been already described in the general sketch of the county. The best business blocks in the city sur- round the public square, and many of the buildings are creditable specimens of architecture. The city has numer- ous school buildings which are very well administered, and the churches are commodious and well supported ; but one of the best features of the place for those who seek residences for growing families, consists in the fact that there are no drinking saloons in Newton.
A site near Monroe was at one time selected to be the county seat, by a commission named for the purpose of The shipping business done at this site has necessitated the erection of four elevators, and the general trade of the town is very large. The place was in- corporated in 1857, and ten years later became an independent school district. The magnificent building erected for school purposes is one of the hand- somest features of the town. This building dates from 1871, and its walls are of that cream colored brick for which Milwaukee is somewhatfamous, a fresh location, but Jasper county still has its headquarters at Newton, and there is no present likelihood of a change. The population of the county is now nearly twenty-five thousand, having increased to that number from two hundred, in the year 1846. There are several manufactories, some toler- ably extensive, in the county ; among the rest, a foundry and machine shop at Newton. Flouring mills run by water and by steam power are numer- I resting upon substantial foundations
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of limestone. The cost was nearly $40,000.
Masonry of the speculative kind flourishes in Newton so well, that the order is now erecting a masonic hall at a cost of $4,000, and there are nu- merous churches and church organi- zations, ranging from the Methodist Episcopal to the Mormon ; but the lat- ter body has no church edifice.
MONROE stands on high ground, midway between the Des Moines river and the Skunk, in the south part of Jasper county. The Keokuk and Des Moines Railroad has a station at this point, at which a very large amount of business is transacted. There is great value set upon the fertile tract of land on which Monroe stands; the prairie forms the divide between two rivers, and the settlers were not long in discovering that it is very rich as farm- ing land, capable of raising an end- less succession of good crops. That fact, making the success of the agri- culturist, the merchants and traders have flourished equally in attending to the wants of their neighbors, and between them the town of Monroe has become the second best in the county. The place was once nominated for county seat, but the change, for some reason, was never carried out, and the future of such a city requires no such aids to its prosperity.
The public schools are graded and classified under very competent direc- tion, and the buildings in which all these branches of education are ad- ministered, are of such a character as to be mentioned with pride by the citizens.
PRAIRIE CITY is about nine miles from Monroe, on the Keokuk and Des Moines railroad, and having for its support the shipments from a prosper- ous agricultural region, thickly settled and well worked, it is a very flourish- ing town. The town was first laid out in 1856, when it bore the name of its founder, " Elliott," but when the act of incorporation was effected, the name was changed to the more de- scriptive appellation which it now bears. This is an independent school district, and the schools are graded in four departments, very competently officered. The school building cost $7,000. The citizens have given abundant evidence of their faith in education, and it is satisfactory to ob-
serve that their faith is backed up by good works.
KELLOGG was once known as Jasper City, and it stands about half way be- tween Newton and Grinnell, on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad. A gentle slope, rising from the North Fork of Skunk river, on the left bank, is the site of the town, and it was first platted in 1865. The shipping business transacted at this point is very considerable, and it is bound to increase with the developing powers of the farming community amidst which this town has grown up. There are good schools here, graded and taught by competent educators. The town was incorporated in 1874, and some very desirable improvements have been already undertaken by the officials to whom the interests of this place have been entrusted.
COLFAX is a small town, named in honor of the well known vice presi- dent. The town is built on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, being the next sta- tion west of Newton, and a very considerable shipping business is ef- fected here. The farmers of the rich lands adjoining the town of Colfax, and for a considerable radius, make their headquarters for trade where they make their shipments, and there is consequently a fair average of profitable business of all kinds trans- acted in Colfax. The site of the town is good, but the railroad confers upon it the best passport to prosperity.
LYNNVILLE is an old town, situated in the southeast of the county, doing a good business in its several mills, and forming the center of a considerable local trade among the agriculturists and stock raisers who located here many years ago. There is a good graded school in Lynnville, and the average attendance is very creditable. The town has not yet seen its best days, but it is a prosperous place.
There are several other villages and postoffices, which, following our usual practice, we name, in order that our readers may have the district unrolled, as it were, before them. The different locations are named : Baxter, Amboy, Clyde, Galesburgh, Horn, Greencastle, and Vandalia. When railroads have extended their operations over the county to a greater extent, several or these places will be heard from.
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Jefferson County is in the southeast- | ally stock raising is very successful ern section of Iowa, having an area of here. only four hundred and thirty-two The subsoil, which is very fertile wherever exposed, is about eight feet deep generally, and above that comes the loam, more or less mixed, about two feet deep ; consequently the farmer has an unbounded scope for all his industry and enterprise in the virgin prairie in Jefferson county. The sub- soil holds auy quantity of moisture from wet seasons, waiting for seasous of drought when the treasure rises to refresh the surface, and in that way this county is securely guarded against injury from either extreme. square miles. The whole of the coun- ty is comprised in the purchases made from the Indians in 1832, 1837 and 1842. The territorial legislature or- ganized the county in 1839, or rather, it will be more proper to say, author- ized organization, and the county seat was located at Fairfield in the same year. The first settlement was made here in 1836, there being many settlers who claim to have been first in the ter- ritory. The first school district was organized in the year 1817. It was quite an event for the county when, in Timber follows the streams every- where, and there is, as a rule, a very liberal supply throughout the county. The principal stream is the Skunk river, which flows through Walnut township and part of Lockridge, hav- ing its feeders spread over a very wide extent of country, draining and water- ing a fertile and exceptionally pros- perous part of the county. 1837, the first mill was erected on the Cedar river, as during that year one of the settlers was employed just three weeks in going to, and returning from, the nearest mill, a distance of one hun- dred miles. There is no lack of simi- lar conveniences at the present time, and the water powers available would permit of their almost illimitable in- crease. The county has a fine library association, which exercises a just and beneficent influence, having a library of nearly five thousand volumes, select- ed with such care as to be worthy of much notice. The men of this county are very proud of their war record in the great rebellion, their contribution to the ranks of the defenders of the Union having been exemplary in num- bers and in tone.
There are five stations of the Bur- lington and Missouri River railroad in this county, and the Chicago and Southwestern railroad has five stations distributed through this region.
Along Skunk river and Big Cedar creek there is some broken country, but the surface of the county is gener- ally undulating ; and even in the local- ities mentioned, the farmer has no difficulty in making good use of the soil. Timber fringes all the streams, and in some places there are very fine groves. Loam, mixed with clay in some places, and mixed with sand in others, gives variety and strength suffi- cient to enable agriculturists to pro- duce every description of crop that is sought in Iowa. Graziers rejoice ex- ceedingly over the blue grass of this region, which is plentiful and nutri- tious for their stock. Some tame grasses are also cultivated, and gener-
In a southerly direction the princi- pal watercourses are feeders and trib- utaries of the Des Moines river. The united service of so many small and well wooded streams gives as the total a well drained country, very attractive to the lover of good scenery aud to the practical farmer. Clear and sparkling water can be procured in wells thirty feet deep anywhere except on the ridges where no person would think of sinking; and fine springs are found in some localities.
This county is very rich in building stone, which is found to be very dur- able, as it does not scale nor disin- tegrate upon exposure. It is described as a sandstone composed of quartz fragments, and is not very easily worked; but when put where long use is required, there are few minerals to compare with it for durability and strength under pressure. There is a fine quality of clay found in this county among the timbered lands, from which bricks have been made in great quan- tity. Sand is plentiful in the same localities. Fire clay is also very plen- tiful, some seams having been found in the coal measures fully fifteen feet in thickness. The smiths like the bitu- minous coal which is found in this county, wherever mining operations have been carried on, because the de-
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posit is unusually clear of sulphur. Extensive mining operations are being carried on.
FAIRFIELD, the county seat, stands very near to the geographical center. The Chicago and Southwestern rail- road intersects the Burlington and Mis- souri River railroad at this point, giv- ing the place very great advantages in the matter of shipment as the two roads compete for the business to be trans- acted. The country around Fairfield is well taken up for farms, the major- ity of which are in good hands, and the average of produce increases stead- ily, giving always a large surplus for shipment. The town is excellently situated, having a site of rare beauty ; and the population is thrifty in all the affairs of life, so that they can afford to make substantial improvements in their residences, business houses and streets.
The first settler came to this site in 1839, and the county seat was located here before the first store was opened. School teaching commenced here in 1839, but the arrangements were much more primative than are now found in the elegant and substantial brick edi- fice which is used as a graded school in Fairfield at present. There are sev- eral private schools in the town, and they also are well conducted. Several newspapers have struggled to live in Fairfield, but, after many blows, have gone down hopelessly disabled; but, on the principle of the "survival of the fittest," the town is admirably sup- plied at present.
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