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 63
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The surface of the county undulates considerably, and the soil is fertile. Well water, of fine quality and perma- nent supply can be obtained by sink- ing only a very few feet, even on the prairies, and the creeks everywhere meet the demands for stock supply.
The soil is black loam - very rich- varying in depth from two to six feet, according to position. Limestone is found in this county, about four miles from Rolfe, and the quarry supplies a splendid building stone. The manu- facture of quicklime is very largely carried on in that neighborhood, and
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the article is pronounced excellent. The quarry is the more valuable, be- cause there are so few deposits of that kind available in that part of the state. The exposure has been followed about two miles along a low tract of land, and there is therefore no reason to fear an exhaustion of the supply at an early date. Clay suitable for the manufac- ture of brick has been found in quan- tity, and the branch of industry thus favored will be largely prosecuted.
In estimating the supply of fuel in a county where wood is scarce, it be- comes an item of interest to note that deposits of peat have been dis- covered on and near Beaver creek.
The name of Pocahontas tells its own story, and the county is a practi- cal vote of censure on John Smith - that officer with an uncommon name, who has been several times mentioned in history. The county was organized in 1859, when only eighty persons lived there to assume the task of self- government, and although less than twenty votes were recorded, there was energy enough in the locality soon af- terwards to commence a school and a newspaper - the two essentials of west- ern life.
ROLFE is the seat of justice in Poca- hontas county. The town stands on a pleasant elevation west of the Des Moines river, and it was the first town in the county in point of time. Rolfe has a fine court house of brick and a school house of the same material. There are good quarries of limestone not more than four miles from the town, and extensive groves are near at hand on the banks of the stream. The country in which Rolfe stands is of first class for all agricultural purposes, and the farming class full of enter- prise. There is quite a good local trade done in Rolfe.
FONDA is in the southwest angle of the county, and being a station on the Iowa division of the Illinois Central railroad in a country remarkable for its fertility, a large shipping business is transacted. The merchants of Fon- da are a fine class of men, very confi- dent as to the future of their town, a faith fully justified by appearances. When first settled the place was called Marion, but the present name was sub- stituted. The town was first settled in 1869, and laid off in the following ycar.
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POCAHONTAS CENTER is very near the center of the county, but there is no immediate prospect of its becoming the county seat. The village stands on a pleasant spot between Rolfe and Fonda. There is a post office named Buda in the county, with a few scat- tered houses in the neighborhood, but no business yet being done in the lo- cality except the receipt, distribution and despatch of mails.
Polk County is in the central por- tion of the state of Iowa, and its variety of surface is remarkable. The soil of this county is rich and various, per- mitting almost every description of crop usual in Iowa to come to perfec- tion. The county is well settled by enterprising men who know how to turn its good qualities to the best ac- count, and therefore the region has at- tained and is still attaining a very high degree of prosperity.
There is not in any county in this state, a river system more extensive in proportion to its area than that we find here. The waters of central Iowa and of southern Minnesota are gath- ered into the streams which enrich the soil of this county, and but few realize how completely prosperity is identi- fied with bountiful supplies of water. Man himself would become an atom with which the winds might sport, without a sufficiency of water in his bulk. The body that weighs one hun- dred and forty pounds, when in full health and vigor, contains just ninety pounds of water, and all the food that man consumes is largely compactcd in similar proportions.
The water supply in this county not only suffices for every purpose in ag- riculture and stock raising, not to mention the very prominent part as- sumed by water in dairy operations everywhere, but it affords very numer- ous sites for mills of various kinds, a fair proportion of which have been im- proved in Polk county.
The Des Moines is the principal river, and it flows southeast through the county, receiving supplies from western tributaries through the Beaver creek, North river and Raccoon river, and from the east through Four Mile creek, Indian creek, and Skunk river, sometimes more elegantly termed Chicaqua river. Camp creek, Mud
creek and Spring creek also flow in from the east.
The main tributary of the Des Moines from the north is Big creek, but there are many small streams. There are fish in nearly all the large streams, sometimes very fine and in great variety, and the streams in some phases of country are very rapid, so much so that they have cut for them- selves deep channels, and their banks tower above to great heights. The scenery as well as the usefulness of the county is much improved by the presence of large bodies of timber. There are belts and groves along the principal streams, and near some of the smaller tributaries are groves of great size and good value. Many of the native woods will be largely used in the manufacture of first class furni- ture, when the resources of this county come to be fully developed.
Stone for building purposes is plen- tiful as is generally the case where the coal measures are largely represented. Quarries of limestone are various in kind and utterly inexhaustible in quantity, however many cities may re- quire to be built up from their wealth. Sandstone quarries, also abound and all the materials which in other coun- ties are called into requisition to sub- stitute building stone are here in boundless profusion to supplement the general abundance.
Coal is so plentiful in this county, that it would be a work of supereroga- tion to descant on that subject to the well informed general reader. So nu- merous, so easily worked, and so prof- itable are the coal mines in this coun- ty, that in the city of Des Moines the best kinds of coal can be procured at little more than $3 per ton.
Before this county was so widely and largely settled, there were great complaints of the prevalence of tever and ague; but since the lands have been improved by cultivation, there are no marshes remaining, and very little wet land. All this has been brought about without any general scheme of drainage, except in so far as every man has taken advantage of the configuration of the surface to keep his own share of the territory well cleared of surface water. Jerusa- lem is said to have been kept in excel- lent order by a similar simplicity in
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operation - every man cleaning before | citement among the encamped army his own house front. The result is manifest in the general healthy tone of this county at the present day. The altitude of the county, many hundred feet above the Mississippi level, makes the work of drainage very easy, when a few local peculiarities are taken care of by the agriculturist.
The purchase treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians, or Musquakas, in 1842, conveyed this territory to the United States, with the right to settle in the following year, although the Indians might remain in possession until 1845. Many were not removed to their Kansas reservation until 1846. Fort Des Moines was erected within the purchase, to maintain good order, and of necessity to protect the red men in their possessions, which were soon to pass from them into better keeping. The fort was commenced in 1848.
Traders with the Indians followed up the military, and as usual the man of commerce had a good eye for land. The agents of the traders soon pro- cured permits under which they went on to locate claims on Indian territory, and thus many excellent sites were taken up under favor, before the gen- eral public could come in to spy out the good qualities of the ceded terri- tory; but such incidents are inevita- ble. There is hardly a country under the sun where " kissing " does not, to some extent, " go by favor."
Among the earliest settlers, we find a claim permitted on condition that the favored individual should build a bridge over Four Mile creek, a very sufficient consideration. This occurred in 1844. Thus the army of industry made its way into the wild lands, and already the bright light of civilization shines over a territory larger than many European kingdoms, which was less than forty years ago, the lair of the savage.
It would be an endless task to fol- low in detail the steps of the early set- tlers in Iowa territory, not yet even any- thing so well defined as that, but merely the " Black Hawk Purchase." Claims could not be made in proper form until after the Indian title to the soil had finally lapsed; and, therefore, when those upon the ground began to appreciate the prize for which they might contend, there was no small ex-
of claimants who meant to try their for- tune in the great scramble which was to give, like the modern lottery, all prizes and no blanks. The years had worn away and the time had come when the conclusion and the begin- ning were to be calculated by seconds. It was the night of October 11, 1845. There were men who had heen watch- ing the chances for many months, some of them for years ; and there were understandings among the great body as to what should constitute a moral right, a kind of equitable preemption to special territory. One man had con- structed a saw mill on Middle river in 1843, near to Carlisle, and had added improvements, which, in succession, allowed corn and wheat to be ground in the same building - the first mill of any kind erected in this county. Others had made improvements of like value, but dissimilar in kind, and it would have been unjust in the last de- gree to deny them some consideration for enterprises in which all were likely to be sharers. Still, there was a great army of men on the spot, and there could not fail to be much anxiety in their hearts as the minutes wore away, lest all these claims should be ignored hy persons to whom law and not equi- ty might become the standard,
The evening had become night, and midnight was near at hand, "the witch- ing hour of night, when churchyards yawn, and graves give up their dead," hut everybody was intent upon the mere material world. The hour had come, and not one man, but hundreds of men were ready. The report of the signal gun boomed out upon the mid- night air, and the race had begun. Answering rifles cracked out their sig- nals all around, until over long miles of territory the sound had been con- veyed which warned the watchers that the red man had ceased to be lord of the soil which his forefathers so long had held.
At that moment, while the moon was slowly sinking below the horizon, the work of measurement began, pine torches were soon blazing in many di- rections that the claimants might be sure of their starting points, and as sure that their marks and signals should not be open to misunderstand- ing. On the whole it is satisfactory to
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know that with all the ardour of con- test involved in such a struggle, there were no serious quarrels.
The settlement of the county had al- ready progressed, the race nów was to secure legal recognition, and a good title to holdings, which have in some instances become worth millions of dollars, and which were then known to be of large intrinsic value. The half a mile of territory which could be marked out in each claim, three hun- dred and twenty acres, was in many cases massed with other claims until a little German principality would be dwarfed into miniature proportions by comparison with the proposed estate, whether the estimate took form in size or in productiveness.
The county of Polk was defined in 1836, by the territorial legislature at Iowa City, the county was organized, and the next question was the location of the county seat. Des Moines sought the distinction and the profit, and was resolved to procure it, but there was a rival in the field and the claims of Brooklyn were not to be lightly thrust aside.
The fight was a long onc, and it was contested with spirit to the end, when Des Moines became the winner. The sale of lands at Iowa City took place in 1848, and long before that time the claim holders had formed an organiza- tion among themselves for the purpose of discouraging speculative buyers, and to secure for every man his moral right, by frowning down any attempt to preëmpt a claim to which the person so operating had not made good his demand by valid work and due settle- ment. There were some men so greedy after the goods and gear of others, that murder came very near being com- mitted in one instance, but in the long run no blood was shed, and the equi- ties of the quarrel were readily justi- fied by the force of public opinion.
The buildings necessary for the transaction of the business of the coun- ty were at first constructed cheaply, but after a brief interval Des Moines began to discover how high was the destiny to which she had been called, and thereafter the buildings were made more and more substantial and elegant, that they might accord with the wealth that must find its centre and distribut- ing power in Des Moines. The first court house cost $2,000, the court
house now in use in the same city, $100,000. There are now so many in- stitutions of various kinds in opera- tion to distribute the bounty, to utilize the resources, and to control the pa- tronage which Polk county can be- stow upon worthy objects, that it is not wise even to attempt to catalogue their titles. Des Moines, as the county seat, is a worthy representation of a rich organization, which has under its hands and within the grasp of its citi- zens, a wonderful aggregate of wealth.
Polk County Poor Farm and Asy- lum stand seven miles north of the city, for, wealthy people don't want to be confronted by poor relations every day, but the establishment is well con- ducted, and the average of inmates is only about thirty.
Agricultural fairs, under various auspices, have been held in the county since 1852, and the exhibitions of blood- ed stock, especially, have increased in value from the very first, until there is now as good a showing of such forms of wealth in Polk county, as can be found in any county of its age. The future of the stock raiser in this region must be very largely improved by these exhibitions.
THE CITY OF DES MOINES, the coun- ty seat of Polk county and the capital city of Iowa, stands at the confluence of the Raccoon river, with the river Des Moines, very nearly central in the state of Iowa. Railroads have shower- ed their blessing on this city, and with- out mentioning roads which have been projected, or have been but par- tially carried out, although they are lustily carrying forward their works, six railroads which bring the wealth and the enterprise of the world to this center, carrying hence the fruits of capital, labor and intelligence combin- ed in the various products won from the soil, dug from the bowels of the earth, quarried from its strata, evolved by the mechanical force of its rivers, and elaborated from the grey matter of contemplative intellect, to prepare the way for that glorious age of the world, when the fierce competition for daily bread which is now seen, shall merge in a higher civilization, and men shall strive with each other in deeds of beneficence and love full of a divine emulation. The poetic dream will some day be a reality.
The six roads before mentioned,
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
but not named, are the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Des Moines and Fort Dodge, the Keokuk and Des Moines, the Des Moines, Indianola and Missouri, the Des Moines, Winterset and Southwestern, and the Des Moines and Minnesota. The roads are well formed, well operated, and the value of their hourly ministrations to the prosperity of the city is far in excess of the fabled blessing which came in the story of the Arabian Nights, to the possessor of the wonderful lantern.
Des Moines is a beautiful city as well as rich. The location is certainly handsome, surrounded by eminences which sweep by graceful lines up to- ward the clouds, and bearing on their heights the residences of opulent men who have made their own path in the world, but are not thereby precluded from a liberal appreciation and patron- age of the arts, which make this exist- ence a foretaste of the more beautiful, toward which our innermost souls as- sure us we are moving.
The business part of the city is firm- ly compacted, as if to say every foot of this soil is precious. Here men may coin their thoughts, therefore even the dust is priceless. There is no doubt as to the value of a business site in Des Moines, but when the man of business quits his counting room, and his office, or store, he wants space unbounded for the enjoyment of life, hence the wide diffusion of the pri- vate residences, which rear their pala- tial forms, for many miles around the entrepot of commerce. The wooded hills which bound the vision of the spectator standing within the circle, do not circumscribe the area of popu- lation, for back of these eminences, and embosomed in woods more beau- tiful, splendid homes are found, and new wealth expresses itself by futber extensions, in similar plans of social enjoyment, and dispersion of the blessing called fortune.
The city is well laid out and excel- lently drained, but the Des Moines river is not here, and now the clear stream which the Ione ascended that day in 1843, when the forces of the United States came to build and man Fort Des Moines from whence to watch over the dismissal of one race, and the opening of their territory to a superior people.
Here are buildings of every kind for
| business and for pleasure. Vast blocks for commerce only, temples of wealth, plutonic structures of vast height and size, yet every where too small for the bursting energy, "cribbed, cabined and confined ! " Postoffice accommo- dations for a metroplis which throbs with all the agonies and all the joys of life and death, and which must find an outlet for all these intensities in words that burn. Telegraph offices where the swiftly coursing lightning, which may be the motive power of life itself, with all its wondrous capacity to think and feel, may be compelled to do the bidding of every comer. Opera houses and theatres where the canta- trice and the prima donna can convert their grace notes into solid gold, win- ning more in one night of triumph than Michael Angelo compassed in a lifetime, save in the sublime recom- pense which the greatest soul has in the contemplation of a sublime ac- complishment.
Des Moines river is spanned by four bridges as it flows through the heart of the city, and two other bridges across the Raccoon, giving to south Des Moines and the suburbs, with the fine prairie land beyond, the fullest opportunities for commerce with the metropolis. What is now suburb will soon become city here in Des Moines. London required centuries of growthi before Ludgate became a busy thor- oughfare, and the strand a mart for commerce, such as may now be seen, but Des Moines, and the cities of this new world cannot afford to creep through the world at a snail's pace. They must do or die.
The commercial advantages of this city cannot fail to win high estimation for Des Moines. The navigation of the river is not a feature in its advance- ment, but the railroads cover the whole country with a network from this cen- ter, which can be traversed with such speed and safety, that rivers will cease to become highways, except for the heaviest and least costly articles of merchandize. To be the seat of coun- ty administration was once an object of ambition, and afterwards Des Moines was proud to be chosen as the capital ot the state, but beyond all such trivial incidents in the career of a city, this place owes its well won progress to the energy of an industri- ous and bold population, surrounded
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by a rich agricultural country, well worked, and teeming with the riches of the sun, stored in the earth's crust, so many millions of years ago that the brain of man can never even imagine its history.
The beginning of this city, as we have seen, was the location of Fort Des Moines on this spot in 1833, and the gradual developement of its import- ance has been glanced at in the brief synopsis of the history of the county, which has been given in these pages. To go over the same ground again would be to rehash a twice told story, and to recapitulate the trivial gossip of primary incidents in the lives of set- tlers could not recompense our readers for the trouble of perusal.
In the year 1850, Des Moines had only a population of about five hun- dred. During the next ten years it rose to a little more than four thou- sand. In the year 1870, there were more than twelve thousand persons in the city, and since that date it is esti- mated that the number has increased to very near eighteen thousand souls, with such prospects of further growth as must develop within the next de- cade at least a city of fifty thousand in- habitants. The name of Fort Des Moines remained the appellation of the town until the adoption of the city charter, in 1857, at which time the pre- fix, Fort, was very properly abandoned.
The removal of the capital from Iowa City was first attempted iu 1851, but it was not until 1855, that repeated efforts succeeded, and the former capi- tal was abandoned.
The newspapers of this city would require at least a page to enumerate them, and even then they would be crowded and unsatisfactory; so, as usual, we leave the press to speak for itself, as it so well can. Religious bo- dies and churches differ so slightly from each other, in a thousand cities, that it is enough to say that nearly all the customary denominations. and a few besides, flourish in this city, where everything prospers.
The educational institutions require more detailed mention, and we regret that enough cannot be said to do them justice. But to begin with the begin- ing, let us glance at the public schools. The city has two independent school districts, east and west, with each a board of education. The value of the
property held by the board in the west district amounts to nearly $220,000, and the management aims to secure the very best talent attainable among educators. East Des Moines has a smaller district for which to make pro- vision, but the best disposition is dis- played at all times to improve the op- portunities afforded. The high school alone, with its furniture and fittings, cost $30,000, and of course the best system of grading is in operation.
There is a literary association which opens its library and reading rooms every day to the public except on Sun- days, and several times there have been suggestions hazarded by the more venturesome of its supporters that even on Sundays, when unmarried working men are most likely to have hours at their disposal, it might be well to have the doors ajar.
The university of Des Moines is an institution in which the Baptist de- nomination rules, and the success which has been achieved is most en- couraging. When this establishment was first projected in 1855, the Luth- erans were the moving power, but after some years and when the college had been in operation about a year, the Baptists bought out the first founders, and of course it is a well known fact that Baptists, as a class, with all their trust in immersion, never throw cold water upon an educational movement.
The number of manufactories and mills within the corporate limits and the vast array of business houses which give employment to the toiling thousands in Des Moines and enable them to procure comforts for their families, would require a directory for their enumeration, but even here where all is life and bustle with the mass there are some shiftless people who are their own worst enemies, and can see no good in any location. One of this number, who never worked when he could loaf around, and whose noble as- pirations had been chilled by many re- fusals of a small advance for invest. ment in "sod corn," thus vented his reminiscences and his conclusions in a rhyme which Milton, with all his wealth of descriptive power, would never have imagined:
Hyur the wild Injun once did take delight, Hunted the buffer, fished, fit and bled,
Neow the inhabitants are mostly white and nary red.
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Des Moines is a fine city, rapidly grow ing, and it well deserves the honors which it has fairly won, and knows so well how to appreciate.
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