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 55
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The town lots were soon afterwards sold, or some of them, and in 1850, the young county concluded that a court house was indispensable. The design could not have been elaborate, the ma- terial employed being hewed logs, and the price $359, but the ends and aims of the people were doubtless secured just as well by justice dispensed in a log court house, as since then it has sometimes been where the eyes of the impartial dame have been unbandaged in more costly buildings, sacred to the quibbles of law.
The court house in which the busi- ness of the county is now transacted is a fine building of brick, the spot on which it is erected stands so near the summit of the watershed that it is claimed that the water falling from its roof descends part to the Mississippi and part to the Missouri.
Land sharks came into the western country while the county was in its young prime, and they were soon recognized as first class nuisances. For some time they were invincibly pertinacious, but after a time they ap- pear to have found that trying to vic- timize the early settlers closely resem- bled the efforts of an adder to gnaw a file, so they disappeared, and settle- ment continued. Martin Chuzzlewit and his jolly friend, Mark Tapley, must have fallen in with some of these sharpers before they bought their lo- cation on the ague swamp, known to all the world as Eden, but such fel- lows had uo opening for their energies among men who knew every acre of the soil better than they knew the few square feet of ground on which they were striving to carry out their swin- dle.
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CHARLTON, the county seat of Lucas county, is a very lively, business like place ou the summit of the watershed, before described, and there is just enough of rise and fall on the surface to secure drainage. The outlook from Charlton is very fine, the valley of the Charlton river being, in itself, a provo- cation which might inspire an artist, and that valley comes very near to the city. The streets have been laid out with due regard to beauty and health, as they are wide, handsome thorough- fares with shade trees on each side, and as they come to their full growth, those trees will arch above the heads of wayfarers in many places, adding very materially to the comfort of the residents. Many residences in and near the city are as beautiful as art and vegetation can make them, testify- ing mutely to the good taste and to the substantial wealth of their owners and occupants.
The business premises are chiefly of brick, with stone facings, many of the blocks standing three stories high, and the general aspect of the place denotes success in the great business of com- mercial life. There is a large steam elevator erected in the city near to the station, and the demand for accommo- dation during certain seasons of the year, taxes its space to the utmost. The amount of shipping business ef- fected in Charlton is very great, and the business of the town in other res- pects maintains a very close relation to the shipping of surplus stocks. The depot building here is a very commodious hotel as well as a station, and the structure is in itself an orna- ment to the city.
The public school building in this city is one of the finest in the state, and it is conducted in a manner highly conducive to the interests of the com- munity. The schools are graded on the most approved system, and the services of first class teachers are ob- tained by the payment of liberal sala- ries. It is too much the custom, in many places, to cut down teachers to the very lowest scale of pay at which life can be maintained, and the result achieved is called economy, while in fact there was never in this world more terrible extravagance and folly. The men who run schools on that prin- ciple secure a succession of crude practitioners, who are just learning, or
who are incapable of learning how to educate others. Those persons make their injurious essays as educators up. on the boys and girls committed to their charge, often enough with de- plorable consequences, as they disgust or dishearten their pupils, and then just when the practice which they have obtained begins to improve their own capacities and style, they are hired for other and better schools, where good pay is given, but where the crude learner is not tolerated as an educator of youth. Charlton is wise enough to know that the few dollars per annum saved on a teacher's salary is an in- considerable item, placed side by side with the formation of the youthful mind to habits of study, observation, and prudent self reliance. Latin and Greek are taught in their high school to those who desire to spend part of their school days in poring over dead languages, and every branch of train- ing is so administered, that a graduate from this institution can find employ- ment without difficulty. The cost of the school building was only $20,000. with all furnishings and fittings neces- sary for a first class establishment, and the money was as well spent as could be desired.
The cemetery here in Charlton, or rather just outside Charlton, is a very beautiful and attractive spot. "God's acre," as the Germans call it, is not al- ways as ornamental as it might be in our young towns and cities, but the cemetery here is very handsome, plant- ed with trees along the chief avenues, and surrounded by a hedge of Osage Orange, which grows more cffective every year.
There are three newspapers pub- lished in Charlton, and they are well supported, able journals.
RUSSELL owes its main importance to a station on the Chicago, Burling- ton and Quincy Railroad. The village is about eight miles east of Charlton, in a fine agricultural district, and a very large average of shipping is effect- ed lere. There is also a good local trade which, if appearances may be trusted, is somewhat profitable to the merchants at Russell.
LUCAS stands west of Charlton on the road of the same company, and the position was well chosen by the C., B. & Q. R. R., as it secures shipments from a very wide stretch of farming
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land, and is much appreciated by the | in much of its course, fully six miles agricultural community using the road.
DERBY is a station and village on the Iron Branch Railroad in the south- west of the county, and a fair business is transacted at this point.
There are villages and postoffices at Belinda, Freedom, La Grange, Nor- wood, and Whitebreast.
Lyon County borders on the terri- tory of Dakota, from which it is sepa- rated by the Big Sioux river. This is the northwest county in the state of Iowa. The superficial area of the county is about five hundred and sev. enty-five square miles, and its altitude above sea level is about fourteen hun- dred feet. The Big Sioux river, which forms its boundary on the west, has numerous tributaries, by means of which, it drains and irrigates a very large territory. Rock river, with many affluents, performs similar work, its main branch flowing across the county almost at its centre, and re- ceiving an immense accession from its namesake, Little Rock river, which courses through the county from north- east to southwest. Mad creek runs nearly across the county, having taken its rise in Minnesota, before it falls into Rock river, and there are many other tributaries, of which the largest are Kanaranza, Otter, and Tom creeks. All these streams give clear and beautiful water, and there is no section of the county without a suf- ficient supply.
The main streams mentioned give admirable water powers, which in some few cases have been improved; but with proper outlay there could be many large manufactories kept at work all the year round upon thosc streams.
The supply of timber in Lyon coun- ty is very small, but there are some fine groves on the course of the Big Sioux river, and not a few on the Rock river banks. When time and care have permitted the young timber which is now trying to make head against adverse circumstances, to come to maturity, there will be less cause to find fault ; but at present there is " a plentiful lack " of wooded land.
The valley of the Big Siox river is a very fertile tract of country about three miles wide at its narrowest, and
across. When that valley rolled down to the mightier river, a torrent equal to the work we see accomplished, it is highly improbable that there was any family of Sioux in the country to give a name to the noble river which has now fallen to small dimensions, and to a nomenclature which almost any re- spectable stream would repudiate. The valley is, however, a very valua- ble remnant from old days, and in that sense probably it is appreciated by " a bold yeomanry, the country's pride." The valley is occupied by some of the ablest and most successful farmers that have ever turned a furrow in Ly. on county.
The prairies are rolling, and almost every acre will come under the plow sooner or later. The fertility of the soil cannot be excelled by virgin laud. anywhere. The drift deposit so often mentioned is found here, and the dark vegetal mould which generally accom- panics it will produce any kind of crop usual in this state.
The original name of this county was Buncombe, a name which has gone far and wide over the world as a description of a certain kind of worth- less windbag eloquence. When that name was given to the county by the general assembly, the Sioux were still on the ground, and remained there for many years after. Those Indians bore an ill name among trappers and hunt- ers, and many evil deeds have been rightfully or wrongfully laid to their charge; but after actual settlement commenced in this county, they seem to have made a tolerable record.
In the year 1862, the name of Bun- combe was annulled, and the name of Lyon adopted, in honor of a brave offi- cer who fell, fighting for the union, at Wilson's Creek.
There had been many temporary oc- cupants of the soil, white men consort- ing with the Indians at times, and at war with them very often; but such men had no idea of becoming perma- nent settlers anywhere. They lived their adventurous lives in a manner which Capt. Mayne Reid could well describe; and they died, as a rule, bravely, with their faces turned to the foe; but they were not adapted for the work of colonizing. Our pages might easily be filled with true stories of those men and their natural enemies.
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the red skins, which would thrill every heart, capable of appreciating the truth that is stranger than fiction; but the purpose of our work would be lost in such recitals, and we turn with a sigh to dryer but more useful matter.
The work of actual settlement and organization once begun, the merits of the country were speedily known among the families and friends of the new comers. Somc came in search of a location, and having succeeded be- yond their anticipations, returned from whence they came to bring their families along. Many availed them- selves of such chances when post of- fices were few and far between, to send messages to their kinsfolk, and very often as the result of one such re- turn, there would be a dozen families on the route to the land of promise. In that way the new county of Lyon realized a very fair measure of pros- perity in a quiet way, but the coming on of the great rebellion, and the con- tinnance of that struggle, had a dete- riorating effect on colonization for inany years. Those who were in the county went on with their work, and in the main prospered. Numbers went to the war and came back years afterwards, maimed, or never came back at all, having fallen in defense of the flag, and the principles which they honored by their devotion in life and in death. When the war ended, the work of settlement was resumed with effective energy.
Mills were constructed, newspapers established, stone was quarried, resi- dences built, and a considerable local business done in many localities to prepare for the constant arrival of families seeking an opening for their energies in the wilderness.
In the year 1871, Lyon became a county organization, distinct from Woodbury, and Rock Rapids became the county seat.
ROCK RAPIDS stands at the junction of the Kanaranzi creek with Rock river, ou a beautiful site of prairie land, backed by a very handsome grove of native timber. There are numerous sites on the two streams and at their junction for water powers, and they will be commensurately improved some day, but capital is one of the wants of the county seat, although it is a little capital in itself. When the time comes for the rivers to be made | in water powers available for manu-
useful as "the Co." in many manu- facturing establishments, the banks of the streams will furnish an abundance of stone for building purposes. Back of the town is a fair stretch of agri- cultural country which will make ex- cellent farms and raise endless pro- duce; but the people are content to wait a little longer.
BELOIT is on the Big Sioux river, at the extremity of the county and the state to the southwest. Maple, elm and some other kinds of timber are very plentiful here, and the river has many valuable sites for the erection of mills. The valley of the Sioux river has already been described, and the people of Beloit are on the spot.
DOON - not the " Bonnie Doon " of whose "banks and braes" Robert Burns sang so sweetly - is a town on the east side of Rock river, just where that stream is joined hy Mad creek in a very tranquil way. Little Rock river joins the main stream at the same point, and the district will some day realize great advantages from the wa- ter powers here available. The valleys of the several streams named consti- tute a most desirable location for farmers and raisers of stock who can afford to " bide a wee " until the rail- roads come to the rescue. There is a good future for Doon.
LARCHWOOD is a small town in the northwest of Lyon county, to which, and to the district surrounding it, a considerable colony came from Illi- nois, making this the center of their business operations. The farming lands here are very productive, and there is a very fair business effected in Larch- wood.
Madison County is within the region of North, Middle and South rivers, which admirably drain the area of five hundred and seventy-six square miles. This county is tolerably well wooded, as all the principal streams, and many of the others, have large groves and belts of native timber, more than enough to supply all local needs for many years to come. The rivers which have been named, and their many tributary streams, fall with considerable impetus down their slop- ing beds of rock, as there is a consid- erable descent in the surface country over which they flow, and the results
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facturing and other purposes need | deep channels into broad ravines, until hardly be enlarged upon.
As is almost everywhere the case in this state where the stratified rocks approach the surface, springs are plen- tiful, and the waters, which gush forth in abundance, are delicious. Wells come from permanent supplies at very moderate depths, and the county is well adapted for stock raising.
The middle and upper coal meas- ures prevail in different parts of the county, but the upper coal measures cover the larger share of territory. There will be a large average of coal won in this county, but much of it will require very deep mining. The rocks which predominate in the upper coal measures, usually give good building stone, but in this county they are even better than usual, so much so that Madison county is famous for this fea- ture of its productions. Good sand- stone is obtained, but the value of that stone is completely overshadowed by the limestone with which it is asso- ciated, and from which some of the handsomest buildings in the state have procured part of their material. It resists the heaviest pressures which have ever been applied to limestone, without crushing the material into frag- ments, and exposure to the atmosphere causes hardly any disintegration.
These limestone quarries in Madison county will figure in all first class buildings in the state. Already Des Moines is a large consumer of the ma- terial, and wherever it is seen in use it is admired. Some of the stone takes a high polish, and will retain it for many years. Such of the stone as the builders reject makes excellent quick lime.
In mentioning the rapid course of the rivers, we left it to be inferred that the county has a considerable altitude from which the streams roll down with great velocity toward the great river highways of commerce. The ridge of the watershed crosses this county. The different coal measures exposed in dif- ferent sections of the county, contain rocks which vary considerably in hard- ness. Those of the lower coal mea- sure are soft and easily worn away by the force of the streams which traverse them; henee it happens that wherever those rocks are found, the rivers have cut their way deep into the earth's crust, and their tributaries have worn
the aspect of the county is much brok- en. Where the other measures come into contact with the streams, the hard bed scarcely permits erasion, and after centuries the torrent has barely shaped itself a channel. The smaller stream has made no impression on the stratum over which it runs. Thus it happens that one part of the county presents a much broken and diversified surface, while the other shows a comparatively even aspect; the valleys broad but not deep; the rivers tumbling rapidly along over heights which refuse to be crumbled at their importunity. " In- cessant dropping wears away a stone," says the proverb, but much depends upon the stone.
The narrow valleys through which the rivers run, where the softer rock has been evaded, end very abruptly in some places. At one point the precipi- tous sides of the valley rise up nearly two hundred feet, and within a few miles, certainly not more than five miles, the stream which has done all this excavation, is represented by a little rivulet, or scarcely more, travers- ing the prairie without momentum enough to make an impression on the underlying strata.
The soil is precisely as has been de- scribed elsewhere in the drift regions, two feet of vegetal mould mixed with other ingredients ; then many feet of that drift soil without mold, into which the water falls as into a sponge, waiting until there is a demand upon the reserve. The proportions vary in different localities, but the character is almost always the same in the regions over which the icebergs deposited their cargoes, and an absolute failure of crop is all but impossible. The customary rotations are observed in this county, and the results come well up to the average of fertile Iowa.
Madison county was first entered upon for settlement in 1845; the man came from Missouri, and he located himself in what is now known as Crawford township. Others soon fol- lowed with their families and before many months had passed there was a nucleus for a prosperous settlement. The idea of colonization in some re- gions appear to occur to a number of persons at the same instant in many different places, and without precon- cert of any kind, they take up their
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bed and walk, with just as little delay as circumstances demand, their paths converging to the same tract where they are to combine thereafter in build- ing a new commonwealth. Perhaps underneath these trivial appearances there is a law in operation which gov- erns humau action, but further this de- ponent saith not. Some of the first set- tlers in Madison county were very needy men, but if they had not horses they went afoot, and when some of the comforts of life were wanting in their menage, they laughingly went without them, applying the rhymed philoso- phy of the sailor: "a light heart and thin pair of unmentionables will go through the world, my brave boys." There was great rejoicing in many camps when some unaccustomed sound told of new arrivals, and every man helped his neighbor.
Stores were erected and furnished with small supplies of goods, brought by ox teams from long distances, through the pathless groves and over prairies, untrodden, until then, by anv but the red men and the trapper. The country was infested with rattlesnakes, and in the spring of 1849, it was found necessary to organize a crusade against them. It is said that nearly four thou- sand of these noxious creatures were destroyed on that occasion. The early days of the settlement were marked by much suffering and privation. Many of the able bodied men started, in 1849, for the newly discovered diggings in California, and those who remained behind looked longingly at the trails of their more adventurous brethren. Their produce, heaped up in their granaries, could hardly find purchas- ers at any price, and the outlook was dreary in the extreme; but when things were at their darkest in the col- ony there, a cry for supplies came over the wilds from the distant Eldo- rado, and they learned that their grain in that country, among the placers, where busy men were deep in the soil hunting for treasure, would be worth more than nuggets of the precious metal. This was a glorious epoch for Madison county, and the tide of pros- perity has never since that time, gone back to its old low water mark.
An act of the legislature of the terri. wory defined the limits of Madison county in 1846, but it was not until af- ter the California gold find had worked
its effect that organization was actually effected, and the site now known as Winterset was selected as the county seat. In the year 1850, there was a large log cabin standing at the county seat, and that building was the temple of justice. Men came there with their wrongs and obtained, customarily. cheep redress. The law may some- times have been doubtful, but the jus- tices knew every man that came before them, and, as a rule, equity prevailed in their manifold simple decisions.
To that building ministers came to preach, whatever their doctrines might be; children came there to school, and the teacher, however humble in acquirements, was accounted a bene- factor. The weary traveler found lodg- ing in the same much frequented abode, and the busy bodies of the set- tlement were always on hand to dis- cuss the affairs of their own locality, or to seek news from wayfarers as to busy world from which they had come- There the shameful story of the coup d'etat was made clear, with many ex- planatory passages never dreamed of on the boulevards at Paris, where the drunken and infuriated soldiery fired upon unresisting, peaceful citizens, merely to create a stupefying terror upon which the empire might be founded. There, long after this event, the sufferings of the Irish famine were expounded by men and women racy of the sod, who could tell with a shudder of the days when it first became appar- ent that the food crops of the nation had failed. The story was a truly sickening affair, such as no European people had unfolded for more than a century, and when the first delineation had been finished, the wanderers, fed to repletion, were urged to begin again. The sad, story was continued for days and weeks, at intervals, with a pathos which wrung tears from the hardest men. The doubts that brooded in the air in old Ireland, when stories came to the peasants from afar, about crops looking beautiful at night, in the morning were a stench over the coun- try side. How the poor creatures said an Ave Maria with redoubled energy over their potato fields, but could not postpone the evil day, when a smell as of putrefaction penetrated every dwell- ing, and it was known that over mil- lions of acres of food, upon which many millions relied for sustenance, the de-
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stroying angel had passed. The fam-1 ine followed, with its deaths innumer- able, reckoned by the ignorant at many millions in excess of the whole population of Ireland, and actually carrying off nearly seven hundred thousand men, women and children. Then their eyes would glisten for a moment as they told, with tears of joy, of the fleets of ships that came over the Atlantic, laden with grain which God- like charity had bestowed upon the sufferers. "Even England, the hard- hearted Saxon race, which, since the days of the Plantagenet, has never ceased to be our oppressor - even England bowed down in the dust by our side to pray for us, and to give us succor."
The court house was the scene of many a " pow wow," more and less affecting, and the people were prepar- ing themselves for the sovereign powers which they were to execise. The necessity for a county jail was discussed there and the building erect- ed in 1851. The present court house at Winterset is a magnificent atfair, but it is doubtful whether the souls of the people will ever be more deeply engaged in their work than they uscd to be in the earnest days of old. The court house now standing is built of cut stone from the admirable quar- ries near, and the edifice in the form of a Greek cross one hundred feet each way, with four fronts of equal beauty, is made to serve all the pur- poses to which a building of the kind should be devoted, and to one which a less handsome erection would serve equally well that of ajail for maletac- tors.
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