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 64
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Pottawattamie County is, with only one exception, the largest county in the state of Iowa, its superficial area being nine hundred and sixty square miles. The Missouri river is one of the boundaries, and the county stands in the third tier from the southern boundary line. The drainage of this vast area is carried on by a number of small streams which run from north to south over the surface of Pottawat- tamie county, with a tendency toward the west. There is a fine level plain, yet not exactly level, which ranges from three miles to ten miles in breadth, on the western border of the county, which is known as the Mis- souri river bottom. From this plain the bluffs rise almost perpendicularly in many places to heights varying from two hundred to three hundred feet. The effect is occasionally majestic and never monotonous, the line being broken by narrow valleys and ravines which add a beauty of their own to the scene, but do not destroy the general effect of the bluff system.
Back of the bluffs just as we have seen elsewhere, there are broken grounds, which suggest that when the plain below was actually the bed of the river, and the majestic stream rolled down toward the sea, filling its vast channel from bluff to bluff, the waves might occasionally, when fretted by strong winds, have rolled their bil- lows in upon these shores, cutting and scoring their marks in the now broken lands, so deeply, that time cannot easily efface them.
belts of timber. Thus it will be seen that Pottawattomie county is not weighed down by sameness of outline, nor condemned to an unchanging green, for the tints of its emerald are more numerous than the colors of the rainhow, and the forms of beauty which salute the eye, would tax the imaginative powers of a Claude to ex- cel.
Timber must be sparingly used or assiduously cultivated in this county ; perhaps both courses may be adopted with advantage, as the supply is some- what limited. There are cottonwood groves following the course of the Mis- souri, and considerable woodlands along the West Nishnabotany, be- sides many excellent groves on Pigeon, Honey and Mosquito creeks, but taken in the aggregate in relation to the vast territory embraced in this county, the supply is very much smaller than might be desired.
Bluff deposit with a mixture and a coating of vegetable mould forms the soil of this county, the depth of soil, always considerable, being very great in some few places, and a small scat- tering of lime in the land has much value in cultivation. The rains find a perfect reservoir in the deeper depos- its, and we have already seen what crops and what variety can be raised on lands so prepared for the agricul- turists. The value of this country for the growth of wheat is well estab- lished; but other cereals, and indeed cvery description of growth finds here a home. The grazier and stock raiser need only surround themselves with groves at convenient locations, and the grasses, wild or tame, which spring up in this county, will increase their wealth beyond the dreams of ava- rice.
These broken lands are very often overgrown with timber, and where Stratified rocks are not very largely exposed in this county, but there are many limestone quarries in actual op- eration toward the southeast. West Nishnabotany flows through a line of country where limestone fit for build- ing can be found in plenty, and in nu- merous other places such exposures as can be manufactured into quick lime. Sandstone, and a comparatively worth- less conglomerate are found in the lower stratum of the Missouri bluffs, and the materials from which bricks of excellent quality can be made have not so improved by nature, will easily receive a right impulse from the hand of art. As grazing grounds, the bro- ken land is admirable, and in some places even tillage can be carried on almost to the brow of the bluff. An undulating wavy surface toward the east is broken by picturesque valleys at intervals where the streams have made their channels, just wide enough to show that they have come from a noble and mighty parentagc. Some of these valleys are nearly a mile wide and the channels are adorned with fine | been found at Council Bluffs, and
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at some few other places in this | have but little faculty to begin as little county.
The first expedition into this terri- tory by white men in this century, dates from the year 1804, when some explorers who were ascending the Missouri, held a talk with the red men at the point now known with much other territory as Council Bluffs. Twenty years later, a trader and voy- ageur, probably a Canadian French- man, put up a trading house on nearly the same ground, giving his name for some time to the bluff on which he had located. There was and still is a beautiful spring which finds its course through the bluff just where the trader drove his stakes, and when the Ameri- can Fur Company sent their agents through this territory, they found at this point a welcome, where but few of their color and nations had ever bcen located.
The first regular settlement com- menced in 1838, when a family made their home about four miles from the city of Council Bluffs, and the head of the family so placed had a commis- sion from the government, to assist in the arrangements for removing the In. dians from Platte purchase in Missou- ri, to this part of Iowa. When the red men came to the place provided, the family before mentioned settled down on the ground which is now the heart of the city, and made there a very com- fortable establishment and a farm. The Mormons came to this locality and were for some time masters of the sit- uation; but the first settlers were nei- ther scared nor allured by the charms of the polygamous host.
With the Indians, numerous white traders and camp followers came, so that there was never likely, after that time, to be any uncertainty as to the value of this vast area of unreclaimed land. The Indians, as usual, scattered into lodges, making no progress in civilization. Left alone by other races, they would perhaps slowly work out some advancement; hut confronted by a superior people with a better type of culture than they can approach, they shrink back into their pride and im- mobility, unable to appreciate the mo- tives of their friends, and constitution- ally incapable of understanding the mission of Christ to mankind. They could more easily master logarithms than the mystery in question, and they
children, what they fail to grasp at once with the faculties of men. There is for the Indian nations only the same outcome as there was for the behemoth and the mastodon, extinction or ab- sorption into other races. The ances- tor of the frog of to-day was a huge hatrachian, large as a buffalo; but the Indians will die out; they have not the adaptive power which would make a miniature existence possible in their experience.
United States troops came to this point in 1839, and at the same time a Catholic mission was established. There were no additions to the num- her of settlers until the Mormons came, in the latter part of 1846, and almost immediately after that time the red men were removed once more. They went to Kansas.
The Mormons in this region were at one time nearly eight thousand strong, and they remained there several years, under the leadership of Orson Hyde, whose descendants are among the prominent residents in Salt Lake City to-day. The colony which had gone forward had found their location in Utah, just where the Wahsatch looks down upon the valley of the Salt Lake. Footsore and weary, the pilgrims were not sure but that their journey must still be continued; but the practical energy of Brigham Young saw that the territory adapted for his kingdom had been reached, and he commenced his hierarchical rule with a cheap miracle, which need not here be described.
The shoeless and ragged prophet has become one of the wealthiest men in the United States, and his curious rec- ord, with the developments of his church, will some day find a place in our historical library ; but for the pres- ent it is enough to say that the word went forth in 1852, that all the faithful must assemble at Salt Lake. The message came, horne to the temporary camp by trusty emissaries, who could tell of sulphur springs steaming from the soil, at the base of the foot hills, all through the year; of a valley al- ready full of fruit trees; of a taberna- cle which dimly prophesied the exist- ing edifice, and the slowly rising temple; of a region with mines of sil- ver and gold, from which the gentile could be ostracised, or in which, should he obtrude, it would be possi-
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ble to hold him and his bond slaves and servitors for ever. This was a picture of life which could not fail to call off the mass of the Mormons from Iowa. Numbers had gone in the first expedi- tion, and many had followed since; but soon after 1852, all were gone, save a few who abjured the leadership of the new prophet, Brigham, and, hating polygamy, kept their homes in Potta- wattamie county, and became more or less identified with the progress of the territory.
The state of Iowa was in the line of travel to the gold fields in California, and in 1849, there was a motley gath- ering at the principal points beyond the settled territory, where the adven- turous gold hunters could be beguiled to part with their capital and equip- ments, in some still wilder act of gambling. The deeds of violence which were enacted there, in and near the site of this county, were sometimes prompted by greed and lust, but some- times the exponents of rude justice, in a land without lawful administration, utilized the nearest tree and a long rope, to end carcers assumed to be felonious. Along that line of march vigilance committees sprang into ex- istence with a terrible suddenness, and before the accused could realize their horrible predicament, they had gone to a fate worse than that of Absalom, for he was mourned, and they might hang there as high as Haman, a warn- ing to evil doers of every stripe, until the birds had removed from their pendent figures every ligament and tendon, and the bones fell disjointed to the repugnant earth.
The county was organized in the year 1848, when the Mormons were yet in the land. and all the officials were members of that church. In the same year a post office was established in this county, but the mail service was very irregular, and settled institu- tions were somewhat slow in taking root. Kanesville was the center of population and the seat of justice, but very little is known of the record, and much of what is known reflects no credit on the times, and on the men who were mainly involved in the early history.
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gold fields became known, as a few, who were on their way to the gulches and placers where their bones might have been laid, succumbed to adverse circumstances, remained here on their route and grew up to be rich and pros- perous men, pillars of the state in the best sense. When the Mormons cleared out, they sold their claims at a great sacrifice, and the number of gentiles went on rapidly increasing so that most of the old farms were occupied. With that event, "A change came o'er the spirit of the dream," and settle- ment worthy of the name went on with some rapidity and success.
During the years 1851-2, Pottawatta- mie county was surveyed, and the land office was located at Council Bluffs during the following year. The work of preëmpting claims became a great business, nearly four thousand acres being thus secured in one month, and actual sales were effected during the summer.
The railroads were now projecting their several works across the conti- nent, and every track came this way, so that the settler who had already purchased found himself much better off than he had supposed. He had "builded better than he knew; " but with the railway mania there came an order to cease land sales, so that, after 1856, there were no sales effected until the winter of 1858. During that interval, real estate was at an enor- mous premium. The men who held city lots within the limits of Council Bluffs could work a better mine than their brethren who had gone over- land toward the Golden Gates. Specu- lation became rife, and, just when the colors of the bubble were irridescent with their highest beauty, the crash came so quickly that none could de- termine where the "thing of beauty," which was to have been "a joy for ever," had finally disappeared.
The county was divided into town- ships in 1852, and from that time, un- til 1859, organizations proceeded with much rapidity. There were nine townships so organized at the date last mentioned, but we pass by those gen- eral developments to come down to the more particular growths which identify themselves with the history of the county.
Gentiles came into this curious camp very slowly. In the year 1848, there were some small beginnings, and these COUNCIL BLUFFS was originally were increased somewhat when the | known as Kanesville, that name being
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bestowed in honor of a general who was a visitor to the Mormon settle- ment. The city stands at the foot of the bluffs. Lord Castlereagh said of the Irish people, that "the time would come when Ireland would stand pros- trate at the feet of Great Britain." Council Bluffs stands at the foot of the bluffs, but it has not yet discovered how to " stand prostrate." The loca- tion is very beautiful, with the Mis- souri river forming an elhow at this point, and the distant hills, made yet more handsome hy choice residences which have been there erected. On the farther side of the river is the city of Omaha, about the greatness of which George Francis Train used to wax eloquent in the days when that gentlemen assumed the airs of a mill- ionaire, and before his allotments had been sold for accruing taxes.
The beauty of the prospect on the Nebraska side of the river can be seen from the bluffs, on which the hand- somest residences have been raised, aud the prosperity which illumines Omaha acts as a very effective spur to the enterprise of the sister city.
There is a very fine bridge across the Missouri, by which passengers from San Francisco and New York, and elsewhere, are transhipped, to continue their career from one side of the continent to the other, the one to roll on through Cheyenne, Laramie, Ogden and Sacramento, until he stands in the lovely city near the Golden Gates, and the other to continue liis career along numerous lines until he hears the mighty roar of the Atlantic.
The amount of business transacted in Council Bluffs would require statis- tics to properly set down the facts, but there is a power in arithmetie for the confusion of general readers, when they are not wise enough to jump the entry ; and therefore we content our- selves with saying that merchants are prosperous here, doing a large trade wholesale, and that their brethren who come nearer to the wants of individ- uals have good returns from their retail stores. This is the greatest cen- ter of railroad operations on the Mis- souri river, and that fact tells its own story.
There was some confusion at one time, and for some years, in conse- quence of the city of Council Bluffs, or, to be more particular, in conse- l given by the citizens.
quence of Kanesville, having been set- tled and built upon before the land had been sold by the government, or even surveyed; but in the long run, by the exercise of strong common sense and much forbearance, the whole trouble was cleared up under an act of congress which was passed in 1854, without the many interests involved being to any ruinous extent depleted by the lawyers. The city in that year assumed the name of Coun- cil Bluffs, although properly that title belonged to a site twenty miles away, where the first comers, in 1804, inter- viewed the red men and smoked the pipe of peace.
The corporation charter is so amended that it now holds good over a territory four miles square, and the city is very well governed, as it has been indeed since 1855.
There are large iron works estab- lished in this city, and they have been in operation ever since 1866, under the auspices of a stock company, em- ploying large numbers of men. Pork packing has been carried on exten- sively here since the year 1859, and every year sees some addition to the business.
Railroads have been specially iden- tified with the history of Council Blnffs since the year 1853, when the Mississippi and Missouri River rail- road company caused a line to be sur- veyed from Davenport to this point. The road which was then prepared for was afterwards constructed, and the same staff of engineers commenced the operations which eventuated in the building of the great Union Pacific railroad. In the same year another line was projected, which was to make this point its terminus, and to traverse the whole state, and so well was the scheme received that the county of Pottawattamie voted $100,000 in aid of the operation. The projector of that line became afterwards president of the Union Pacific road, and the other line was never built.
The Cedar Rapids and Missouri River railroad was the first line that actually approached Council Bluffs from the east; and that event dates from the year 1856, when the first ground was broken, and a grant of $30,000, together with eighty acres of land, in aid of the line of road, were
40
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
The first locomotive entered the city | issued warrants, but there are excel- amid a general triumph in 1861; and lent graded schools in Council Bluffs, well situated and admirably managed by first class teachers and superintend- ents. the Chicago and Northwestern having leased the line, it has since that time been in steady operation, much to the gain of Council Bluffs.
The next contribution from the funds of the city of Council Bluff's, toward railroad construction, was for the St. Joseph and Missouri line, which was surveyed in 1858, com- menced in 1859, and not finished until the end of 1867. The city gave bonds for $25,000 and $40,000, from the sale of swamp lands, toward the enter- prise, and although the work of con- struction went on slowly, more than an equivalent for the outlay has been realized.
The same year that the line was completed from St. Joseph, a locomo- tive crossed the Missouri on a trestle work bridge to assist in the work of forming the Union Pacific railroad, and the following year saw the per- manent bridge commenced, which now carries the travel and traffic of that line, connecting the city of Coun. cil Bluffs with the two oceans.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pa- cific railroad became au fait accompli, so far as the city of Council Bluff's was concerned, in the summer of 1869. The county voted $300,000 as a contri- bution to the stock of the Mississippi and Missouri River railroad, twelve years before, in consideration of this work, but the delays, and some dis- putes as to the legality of such a vote, resulted in much loss to the county before the work could be completed, and the line operated as at present.
The Sioux City and Pacific railroad company, with numerous extensions, has connected the city with the city of St. Paul, and also with Dakota, re- cently.
The court house at Council Bluffs is a very fine building, which cost the county about $50,000 in 1867. Prior to that time the edifice which had been in occupation for the same pur- pose, and also as a school house and hall of assembly, was a relic from the days of Orson Hyde, the Mormon leader, and had only cost the citizens $200.
The school funds of the county suf- fered terribly in the years 1858-9, in consequence of the malversations of a county judge, who had fraudulently
The churches, one of which, the Methodist Episcopal, dates from 1850, when the Mormons possessed the land, are some of them very prosperous, and they all have handsome edifices.
The State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb has been located at Council Bluffs, where it occupies an excellent site, only a short distance from the city. The institution is well managed by officials nominated by the authori- ties at Des Moines, and is very credit- able to the state, as well as an orna- ment to its location.
There is a county agricultural soci- ety organized here, which dates from 1858, since which time there have been annual fairs, and the association pros- pers.
The newspaper press of the city of Council Bluffs is very extensive, repre- senting every shade of political, so- cial, religious and moral opinion, with a few besides which will not come un- der any such category.
AVOCA, so called, no doubt, in com- memoration of the vale in which Tom Moore celebrated the meeting of the waters, is a very lively town and ex- tensive shipping station on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, nearly forty miles from the Missouri river, by the route mentioned. The town was laid out in 1869, on a very beautiful site between two branches of the Nishnabotany river, which form a junction two miles be- low. There are fine groves of timber on the river, near this point, and that is no small advantage in a country where the supplies are limited. Back of the town there are fine farming lands, which have commanded the at- tention of an intelligent and enterpris- ing class of agriculturists and are in very prosperous condition.
The population of Avoca numbers about fifteen hundred, and the town has all the advantages which help to build up a prosperous community. Much produce, of various kinds, is sent off, east and west. There is a good local trade. The school accon- modation is ample, both as to build- ings and teachers, and the churches of I the locality are well sustained.
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The shipping business is so exten- sive that two and sometimes more ele- vators are in active operation, and there is a very large steam flouring mill constantly at work.
The eastern part of the county of Pottawattamie has desire to become a separate organization, and it is likely that whenever the change may occur the town of Avoca will be the seat of the new county.
WALNUT is a station on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, a little more than six miles from Avoca, on a fine, high, rolling prairie site, with a rich farming coun- try surrounding it in every direction. The shipping business which is trans- acted here makes a good local trade in supplying the wants of shippers. There is in this town a steam flouring mill, and two grain elevators are in continual requisition. A very neat school house has been erected and is well managed, besides which Walnut has recently established a bank.
NEOLA is about eighteen miles from the city of Council Bluffs, on the Chi- cago, Rock Island and Pacific Rail- road, and a fair shipping business is transacted here, besides which there is a good local trade.
MINDEN is the small beginning of a prosperous town, five miles east from Neola, recently laid out on the same line of railroad.
WESTON is only a station on the same road, and no town has yet been laid off, but there is a fine agricultural country from which much shipping may be expected, so that the probabil- ities are largely in favor of a town growing up on the site.
There are numerous villages and postoffices in the county which, like Canning's knife grinder, have no story to tell, so we append their names- Crescent City, Big Grove, Honey Creek, Downsville, Macedonia, Love- land, Taylor's Station, Parma, Wheel- er's Grove, Waveland and Living Spring.
Poweshiek County is about half way between the old and the new state capital, the fifth from the Mississippi river at Davenport. This is one of the square counties in Iowa, being twenty- four miles each way. There are about eleven thousand five hundred acres of woodland, all the rest being streams
or prairie. The principal watershed of Iowa traverses part of this county. Numcrous small streams rise in this county, flowing eastward on one side of the watershed, and south on the other. The north fork of Skunk river is in the southwest angle of the county, and this stream gives several sites for water powers, which will be improved as there is a dearth of such advantages in this county.
The drainage is very good, as the streams which come down from the uplands have cut very deep into the rock formation. In some places, after abrading the drift, which overlies the whole county, and in consequence, all the rains which sink down into the soil are carried off through the strata to the banks of the streams. The bot- toms of the streams show a mixture of mud and gravel.
The deep channels and occasional vallies along the water courses have the effect of varying the beauty of the county. The undulating prairie is bevelled into decper depressions, through which the streams rush to their rocky beds, and along the larger streams are many handsome groves.
Generally, the drift is very deep, and composed of soil which permits of unlimited cultivation, and above that deposit a vegetable mould varies from two to six feet in depth. There is a fine clay under the drift, and in some places that material will be turned to a very good purpose, as with fair skill in manufacture, it is well fitted for some kinds of pottery. Brick clay is comparatively common.
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