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 59
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The infant industries of the county commenced with a sawmill in 1854, at Newburg, and the first newspaper was printed under a tree at Osage, in 1856. There had been two postoffices estab- lished prior to that time, one at Osage and the other at Mitchell, the rivals for the honor of being the county seat, prior to which time, the postal accom- modations for the district had lain outside the borders of the organiza- tion at one hundred miles, seventy miles, and forty miles away, success- ively. With these several improve- ments came also a school house, which
amid all the turmoil of litigation was not forgotten, the first beginning of the all-pervading system which we have seen taking its rise at Mitchell, in 1854.
OSAGE, the present county seat, is a prosperous town, about one mile from the Red Cedar river, on rising ground, surrounded, except ou the river bank, by beautiful prairie, the interval be- tween the town and the Red Cedar be- ing a dense grove which shelters the habitations from the west and south- west winds. The Illinois Central Rail- road has a station here and transacts a large shipping business, which assists materially to build up the prosperity of Osage. The town has been laid out with due regard to appearances as well as to drainage. The business blocks are mostly of brick and are very creditable specimens of architec- ture, for the purposes to which they are applied. Shade trees and orna- mental shrubs are largely in favor among the citizens and the town grows in beauty every day. The business men of this enterprising town have displayed very considerable taste in the selection of sites for their dwel- lings and in their adornment. They have exhibited like excellent qualities in surrounding themselves with every institution available to young commu- nities for the development of intellec- tual and moral force in the rising gen- eration. The town was incorporated in 1871, and its improvement since that date has been very great, as may be seen by any one who will be at the pains to consult statistical returns, such as we are obliged to put aside.
The town was first laid out in 1853, and already it was a conclusion in the minds of its projectors that Osage must become the county seat. The name was not borrowed from the In- dians, but was the brief rendering of the name of a Massachusetts man whose godfathers and godmothers called him Orrin Sage. The first name thought of, was Cora, being the the name of one of Fennimore Coop- er's heroines, a young lady that made a very effective appeal to the Indian chief Tammenud.
The United States land office was moved to this town from its former headquarters at Decorah, in 1856, and the presence of that department in the place was very beneficial until in 1859,
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Des Moines succeeded to that honor, and the consequent emoluments. One sale of land, in the year 1857, brought no less than two thousand and five hundred visitors to Osage to invest in lands.
We have mentioned the taste and energy of the residents in Osage; but a contemplation of the institutions of a people will say more than words can utter for the intellectual and moral status of a community. We propose to try Osage by that test.
Cedar Valley seminary is located here; and the high tone of the people, as a class, determined the projectors of that institution in their choice. The school was opened in 1863, and from the very first year has taken pub- lic favor by storm in consequence of the beneficent results which have been attained there. The year after its first foundation, the Cedar Valley Bap- tist association made arrangements for a controlling interest, and three years later, the seminary was placed on a college basis, with teachers in every department of the very highest stand- ing. The building is of brick, with stone facings, and the edifice, together with every modern appliance for the convenience of students and profes- sors, cost $20,000.
Orrin Sage, to whom the town owes its name of Osage, gave to the people $2,000 and six hundred acres of land for the erection of a public library, and thereupon the citizens authorized their official staff to collect a tax of $4,000 to carry the undertaking to a creditable conclusion, the result being one of the finest libraries yet estab- lished in a young settlement in this state. The land not required for the building remains to be sold from time to time when favorable opportunities occur, to form a fund for the purchase of books. The trustees named for that purpose are supposed to be among the men most likely to select valuable liter- ature, and Osage will reap a rich har- vest of knowledge and delight in con- sequence of that movement
The graded school building cost the Osage independent district $20,000, and the institution is admirably conducted ; hut already the general aspects of the publie school system have been en- larged upon and the story need not be twice told. There are two banks here and a steam elevator company, the lat-
ter institution being cooperative, and having taken its rise among the grang- ers. The storage capacity of the ele- vator is equal to twenty-five thousand bushels, and the cost when completed was $6,000.
The first newspaper was published in Osage in 1856, aud of course there were many troubles to be overcome. All the ailments known to juvenile man are but a bagatelle compared with the tribulations of an infant journal. Thousands die before cutting their milk teeth, but they are followed by brothers with a strong family likeness, until some one of the succession springs at last, fully armed, from the head of Minerva, and thereafter the public can never be at a loss for wis- dom and courage equal to every emer- gency which the editorial "we" can be called upon to deal. Osage has two newspapers, the ripe fruits of much sorrow and pain, but they are well supported and in every sense worthy.
The churches in Osage have mostly secured handsome edifices, and the people generally give their support to such institutions with praiseworthy zeal.
MITCHELL, once the county seat, is known as three villages, Mitchell, West Mitchell, and Mitchell Station ; but people at a distance mass the three into one, as eventually it must become in actual operation. The town of West Mitchell was commenced in 1853, on the east bank of the Red Cedar river, and soon became a very important place. Mitchell was for some time a commercial rival of the first mentioned village, but neither of the two places secured the advantage of a station on the Cedar Falls and Minnesota railroad, and, in conse- quence, when that line was constructed, a third village rose into note at the point where the company erected a depot. The eastern village made the best of a poor bargain by moving all their impedimenta to Mitchell Station, and practically the old rivals in busi- ness are rivals still. much to the ad- vantage of the farming community in the fertile country surrounding.
There is an excellent graded school located here, and in supporting that institution in the highest degree of efficiency, the villages cordially unite. The structure is of wood, and the cost
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was $4,500. The average attendance | at the school we have ascertained to be one hundred and fifty pupils.
There is a fine flouring mill estab- lished here, and also the only woolen mill in the county, both doing an ex- cellent average of business and making a reputation for sound and genuine productions, which may lead to a large increase with the growth of the county.
RICEVILLE took its name from the first settlers who came here in 1855, and soon afterwards established a saw- mill, with steam for the motive power. When that establishment was burned down in 1858, the millers improved the water power and set their saw mill to work again, together with a grist mill, which has been in operation ever since. There is a lack of railroad ac- commodation at this point or the growth of the town would be much more rapid. The nearest station is in Minnesota, at a distance of ten miles. The first school opened here dates from 1859, and there are now first class edu- cational facilities in Riceville.
Monoua County lies on the Iowa bank of the Missouri river, in the fifth tier from the northern and southern boundaries of the state. The county contains a superficial area of six hun- dred and eighty square miles, and the course of the Missouri gives an irregu- lar outline in this region. Bottom land is the main characteristic of much of this territory, there being about one hundred and sixty-five thousand acres of such fertile valley in the western area of Monona county.
Some of these lands are liable to overflow when the capricious river wishes to reclaim her own for a time, but with every fresh visit during un- numbered centuries, there has been a fresh deposit from the muddy visitor, and each of these accretions has made another call less likely. The land rises gradually toward the north, and a wider area becomes safe against en- croachment every year. When the river remains in its accustomed chan- nel, these bottom lands can be culti- vated safely and with very considera- ble profit, as the fertility of the soil is unbounded. To the east, Monona county is high rolling prairie, inter- sected by rich and beautiful valleys, through which flow Soldier and Maple
rivers, Willow creek and their very numerous tributaries, draining a fine stretch of country equal to the highest demands of the husbandman and grazier.
Along the east side of the Little Sioux river these uplands look down upon the river valley from a consider- able elevation, constituting bluff for- mations in that locality similar to those which form the rampart against the Missouri. These bluffs seldom fall below three hundred feet in height from the water level, and within long distances there are but few that exceed that altitude, stitl there is no disagree- able impression of uniformity on the mind of the tourist as he continues his journey through this country of ma- jestic proportions. Near the bluffs, the uplands are somewhat broken, so much so that it will be found advisa- ble to plant groves and belts of timber in such localities, rather than attempt for many years to come to use them for agricultural locations. There are many narrow well wooded ravines oc- cupying such sites to a limited extent, and from these woodlands, without any deliberate process of planting, there will be a continuous extension of groves through the country named, in consequence of the comparative safety from fires now enjoyed.
Elsewhere the valleys rise from the banks of the inland streams until they gradually join the uplands among the rounded divides which push their arms down toward the mighty river, the highroad of commerce. Beautiful bottom lands are found on both sides of some of the eastern streams, some- times two miles and very often one mile across. Here, as elsewhere, there is a substratum of quicksand visible in the lower revelations of Iowa occa- sionally. The margins of many streams arc quicksand, over which grassy banks make their local habita- tion. The alluvial land in this region must therefore be found without much sign of stratified rocks.
Good powers for driving machinery are found on the Little Sioux river, and many of the sites have been im- proved by the erection of mills to sup- ply the wants of the farming popula- tion, but there yet remain a number of locations on which the manufacturer may erect his factories, assured of never-failing force, which will build
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up, for him and his, great fortunes in | the Missouri bottom lands, and their the future.
Very many excellent wells have been sunk in the valleys where the quicksand formation does not obtrude itself, and permanent water has been found at a depth of ten feet, but there are very few wells more than twenty feet deep, and the water found is excel- lent. The upland farmer, having the bluff deposit through which to sink, has frequently to go down one hun- dred feet or even more, before procur- ing a permanent supply ; but the first expense is all, as the wells seldom eave in in this formation, and the windmill is extensively used to bring the supply of stock water to the surface, and it is found of an equable temperature at all seasons of the year. When a farmer happens to make his well where one of the subterranean streams percolate through the crust, he procures a toler- ably reliable supply at much less trouble. Springs are found bursting from the bluffs at frequent intervals, and the little brooklets which are fed from these sources are bright and beautiful, much appreciated by stock and stock raisers.
The larger streams are much fre- quented by stock, and the excellent grazing lands on the upland prairie supply that source of the greatness of the county with abundant food. The native grasses are very succulent and nutritious, making first-class hay when properly cared for in due season. When the river sought the present channel, there seems to have been a part of the stream banked in, forming lakes, which yet remain stocked with fish in many localities. There are now heavy growths of cottonwood he- tween these lakes, in the Missouri hot- tom lands and the river, consequently the change takes its date from a very remote period, and the recent sub. mergencies have been partial and of short duration, or else the forest growths must have been badly dam- aged.
In the valleys the soil is deep and usually black mold or fine loam. Some districts show a depth of sixteen feet, from which magnificent crops of corn, grain and vegetables are annually raised. Sand bars, which were formed ages ago by rivers which may have been running here when Adam first saw the light, are found at intervals in |
extent suggests the mighty current of pre-Adamite torrents filling the broad area from bluff to bluff, before Niaga ra stood, where it now pours down its mighty wealth of waters, before this continent plunged down beneath the sea, to rise again in the good provi- dence of God, to become the home of a free people slowly becoming worthy of liberty.
The bottom lands owe their gradual accretion to the river's deposits, and, in consequence, they present consider- able variety of soil, underlaid with sand and gravel, and sometimes with clay, in which are imbedded fragments of wood and decaying vegetation. Some of these features are found, when wells are being dug to great depths, and they are full of a peculiar interest for inquiring minds, as they reveal the history of this section of the earth during a very remote time.
The practical result of this growth of part of a continent is, that the land is of unlimited depth, capable of sus- taining an endless succession of crops of every description.
'There are large bodies of timber bordering the Mississippi banks, and groves of great extent on the Little Sioux, while, as before mentioned, there are many ravines in which for- est growths have succeeded each other probably for many hundreds of years. Monona has neither stone nor coal; but brick clay may be found in the bluffs from which bricks will be made to an enormous extent for the upbuilding of great and prosperous cities. Fuel is plentiful enough now, and will continue to be for many years ; but, unless coal is brought from a dis- tance, or unless groves are planted and protected by the farming community, the probability is, that before many years have passed, the price of fuel will rise to a considerable premium.
Early in the year 1852, the first set- tlement in this county was made, about two miles from the town of Onawa, and the foundation of that town was laid by these early settlers in the year 1855. From the dates named, settle- ment has gone on in an ever increas- ing ratio, and the population has not been particularly mixed, but some of the earliest arrivals had a leaning towards the church of the Latter Day Saints.
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There was a Mormon settlement about fifteen miles southeast of Onawa, which was commenced in 1854, and the leading men in that enterprise called their place Preparation, as their terrestrial abode was to be a place of schooling until the blissful change which should give to the successors of Joe Smith and to the arch saint himself a place among the Gods. The chief man among the deluded band called himself Father Ephraim, and asserted that he was in direct communication with the spirit forces. He claimed to be the Ephraim of the Scriptures, and he out-Heroded Joe Smith himself in his appeals to the credulity of the gap- ing crowd. The prophet secured to himself the landed properties and earthly possessions of his followers, giv- ing them in return an unlimited pos- session where they could have no hold upon him. This business was hurt very considerably in 1855, by some men commencing suits against the im- postor to procure their property from his hands, and the steward of the Most High had to disgorge some of his spoil in order to effect a compromise.
The party was further demoralized in 1858 by the discovery that the " steward " had secured all of his prop- erty, and all the other properties con- veyed to him, by transfer to his wife, and when a settlement was demanded, the prophet ran for his life, mounted barebacked on a steed which would have petrified Mazeppa. The fellow was hunted with great pertinacity by his victims, but he escaped with his life and lived long enough to realize abso- lute destitution. The lands fraudulent- ly obtained, and fraudulently conveyed to other persons than their proper own- ers, were held in possession continu- ously by the disciples after their mas- ter had filed, and their rights were eventually vindicated by the supreme court of the state in spite of their folly and wrongheadedness. The rascal, to whose duplicity they owed so much trouble and costly litigation, attempted to found other churches, but his record became known, or the race of fools had become exhausted; so in the end the wicked man came to grief, just as he always does in the story books.
When the county was organized in 1854, the Mormon leader was nomin- ated county judge, and the first busi- ness of the new organization was
transacted at Preparation, until the proper location was determined upon at a site called Ashton. From Ashton, once named Bloomfield, the vote of the people transferred the seat of justice to Onawa, where it remains, although there have been votes taken at different times on proposals to remove to Belvi- dere and to Arcola. The Sioux City and Pacific railroad has now its loca- tion at Onawa, and it is not likely that any change will be made for many years.
The railroad facilities possessed by this county are very good. The Sioux City and Pacific railroad runs through the Missouri valley, with many sta tions at convenient points; the Chica- go and Northwestern connects with that line at the Missouri Valley Junc- tion, and the Illinois Central and Sioux City and St. Paul railroads join the line at Sioux City, the line last men- tioned taking traffic and passengers to St. Paul and St. Louis. The network thus constructed needs but a few short connecting roads to interlace the whole county with the iron ribbon of civili- zation.
ONAWA is situated near the center line of the county of Monona, but not in the geographical center. The river is about four miles off at the nearest point, but due east the Missouri lies at a distance of eight miles. So irreg- ular is the outline of the county that the geographical center would not be a very convenient location for county business. The town was first laid off in 1857, and the first building was erected in the same year. The streets are wide and the business premises substantial, and there are two park re- serves within the limits of the corpo- ration. There are some very handsome church edifices here, and an excellent building, very commodious, is devoted to the service of the young by the es- tablishment of a first class graded school, under a very good corps of teachers, who can point with great pride to their results.
At this point the Sioux City and Pa- cific railroad have a very fine depot building, with all the requisites for the transaction of an extensive traffic. The surroundings of the town are such as must build up a very extensive city, as already the shipments are larger than at any other point in Monona county.
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ARCOLA and BELVIDERE have al- ready been named as at different times candidates for the location as county seat, but they are otherwise places whose greatness lies entirely in the future, and there are more sites in the same category, chief among which in Monona county are Castana, Blencoe and Grant Center, Maple Landing, Hall Creek, Moorhead, Mapleton, Sol dier, Saint Clair, Whiting, and Ti- conic.
Monroe County contains only an arca of four hundred and thirty-two square miles, and it lies fifth county from the Mississippi river, in the sec- ond tier from the southern boundary of the state of Iowa. The Des Moines river touches this county on its north- east angle, and at the southwest it abuts upon the great watershed of the state. There is a great diversity ob- servable in the surface of this county as it rises from the lowly plain and deep valley in one section to extensive uplands and high rolling prairie in another. Part of the southwest of the county has its dip towards the Mis- souri and drains into that river, but all the rest of the region is drained into the Des Moines river and its numer- ous tributaries. Cedar creek is one of the affluents of the Des Moines. The formation of the county generally, gives to its streams a very rapid course, and the brooks go dancing down their courses as merry as if their translu- cent brightness were the expression of the joy within. Beds of gravel and pulverized rock allow the streams full license to run as rapidly as they may, without stirring up the least sediment in their journey.
The valleys are not broad, but they are deep, and, as a consequence the sides of these dells are almost precipitous in some places, while in others they are rocky and romantic. The valleys scem to have striven to extend their bounds until the strata would not per- mit of further growth, and the head- lands come in with their ultimatum, thus far and no farther. With this configuration of surface it is almost needless to say that water powers in this county are in the superlative degree, and the arrangements made by dame nature for draining this section of country are well nigh perfect. The farmer will thus be able to sit down
side by side with the manufacturer in mutual prosperity.
There is an extensive "divide" in this county which sends part of the waters westward to the Cedar creek, while the water courses to 'the east, flow in an easterly direction until they make their way to the Des Moines by different channels, irrigating and draining an immense area.
Rolling tracts of prairie are the prin- cipal features of the uplands, and al- though in some parts the surface is broken, there is good country for farm- ing everywhere. The prairie surface is broken in many directions by the streams which have been mentioned in a cursory way, and that fact prevents uuiformity in any considerable degree. The broken surfaces by the valley sides help to dispel even the slightest ap- proach to sameness, so resolute is na- ture in her determination to ensure va- riety. Precisely the same features are re- peated twelve hundred millions of times in every generation of the human race. The same eyes and nose and mouth, with hardly more than a few in- ches of difference between the best de- velopments of Hebrew nose, and the mere breathing holes in the face, which distinguish the Kalmuck Tartar, yet it is rare to discover two countenances which are exactly alike, and just in the same way hills and valleys, moun- tains and streams, with here an ocean and there a plain, continue such ex- quisite varieties of contour, that it is not possible to find two areas of coun- try precisely similar. The ocean waves have each a character which might photograph its own picture upon a sen- sitive plate, and remain forever regis- tered, unlike any other of the myriad billows, which will seethe and foam from this hour, until the crack of doom, and as distinct from all the other waves, which have fretted against the sky, since the gases combined to form an ocean, upon the surface of the almost burning earth.
The broken lands offer a series of surfaces adapted tor the growth of tim- ber, and these woods help to diversify the numerous aspects of beauty with which the landscape is made up. Not only is the picturesqueness of the scene increased by these formations and growths, but the supply of wood for building, fencing and fuel is vastly im- proved in a region where there is no
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excess of such bounty in the hands of | lowed out their channels and occa- nature.
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