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 68
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SKETCHES OF COUNTIES.
Highland, the greatest altitude in the county, good wells can be made with- out deep sinking, and everywhere throughout the county, well water and springs abound.
Timber is moderately plentiful, the principal bodies being found on Grand river, Twelve Mile and Platte, but there are fine groves on other streams. There are two townships almost en- tirely denuded of timber, toward the northwestern extremity, but the lands are very fine and the prize in the lot- tery of settlement fell to those who were reluctantly obliged to take the untimbered land. There is a tendency to send up groves over these lands wherever cultivation does not inter- fere, and of course the farmers are rap- idly planting trees to supply the de- ficiency.
Game is still plentiful here, although more rare than a few years ago, still the sportsman can amuse himself with much profit at the proper seasons, and the streams are well supplied with beautiful fish. Izaak Walton would have enjoyed a visit to Grand river, but for the fact that he thought the Thames the loveliest, clearest and, of course, the greatest river in the uni- verse.
About one-half the county west of Twelve Mile creek has a soil formed by decayed vegetation, during centu- ries when the grass has not been caten down by buffalo and elk, or burned by prairie fires, but in any case, under whatever changes, the substance still remained as increment to the soil which now produces magnificent crops of all kinds. East of that stream there is broken land and some gravel patches, but as a whole the land is fertile.
There are many fine quarries on Grand river, and excellent building stone is found about eight miles from Afton. Quicklime of excellent quali- ty is made from this rock, and the quantity is inexhaustible. Coal has been found in some places, but in beds too thin for profitable working. Brick clay of inferior quality has also been found, but the bricks cannot be made of good appearance. They are of value for durability when well burned, but the show is not attractive.
Mormons were the first white set- tlers here, and they came to the coun- ty in the year 1846, when prairie fires
| came almost as regularly as the sea sons. The saints were on their way from Nauvoo to the land of promise, but the season was too far advanced for crossing the plains, so they made their home at Mt. Pisgah, and the temporary camp numbered about two thousand persons. The settlers were very poor, but very hard working and frugal, making the best of indifferent circumstances while they remained. The Indians and the Mormons have always been on very friendly terms, and they were thus amicably disposed toward each other in the country around Mt. Pisgah. Years after, among other tribes, the same policy and the same results were visible, the red skin continued the ally of the Mor- mon; were the Dauites to cut off a fly- ing fugitive, the Indians were ready to cooperate with them in their work of death, and when the Mountain Meadow massacre occurred, the Indians, by their attack upon the camp of emi- grants, gave to the Nauvoo Legion the opportunity, so treacherously used, to pretend friendship and love as the pre- lude to the slaughter of more than one hundred unarmed, defenseless, unre- sisting men, women and children.
The first white Gentile settlement was made in the year 1850, the new comers buying out some of the Mor- mons, who were ready to continue their journey. There was a mill, and there were many other improvements which the Saints had made, and all these were sold at prices a little more than nominal, as the orders for mov- ing on were peremptory.
The county was separately organ- ized in 1852-3, when the man elected county judge made his mark, being unable to write his name, and only eleven votes were cast in the county election. When the county court con- vened at Petersville, it was necessary for every man in the county to serve on the grand jury. The name for a county seat was determined by the legislature, but the commissioners nominated to locate the seat of justice failed to do so, consequently there was a name without a local habitation from 1853 until 1855.
In the latter year, the legislature appointed a second commission, and AFTON was selected and named by that tribunal, with much taste, after due deliberation.
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
HIGHLAND appealed to the county against the decision of the commis- sioners, but a vote of the community supported the conclusion that the county seat should be at Afton. High- land, soon afterwards, ceased to be a town, many of the buildings being re- moved to Afton and elsewhere.
Schools were among the first ambi- tions encouraged in Union county, and almost every district has a neat, well appointed building for educa- tional purposes, in which school is taught on an average nine months in every year. Institutes, which have been held here, show a lively interest on the part of teachers and parents in all that concerns the education and culture of youth. Wher. the census was taken, in 1873, there were eight graded schools in Union county, and seventy other schools, all in good hands, well attended and affording excellent results at a permanent an- nual cost of about $20,000, with a fund of $35,044. There were then more than two thousand pupils en- rolled, and one hundred and thirty teachers.
Railways are pretty well distributed through this county. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Company op- erating the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, runs through the cen- ter of the county, east and west, with stations at Thayer, Afton, Creston and Cromwell, and the Creston branch runs southwest, having a station at Kent, in the southwest angle of the county.
There is a good agricultural society now in operation, which was estab- lished here in 1858, but which failed to connect during the war time. Its fairs are now very successful and much good is done by its agency.
There are many newspapers pub- lished in the county, but they only aim at county usefulness, and they have made the best proof of their utility in their success.
AFTON is very near the center of the county, of which it is the seat, the geographical point being only two miles distant. The site is very hand- some and the view such as must please the most fastidious. The Twelve Mile creek, which marks the distance from Mt. Pisgah, is the watercourse by which the town is located, and the view of that stream is charming.
The country around is well im- proved agricultural land, which gives large shipments of produce for the Afton station to send forward. The town was platted in 1854, and half the lots were given to the county as the price of the location of the county seat, of course. The town is now of considerable size, doing a large local and general trade. There are church- es, school houses, residences and busi- ness premises, all of good style and substantial, and it will be long before another sheriff will be elected in Union county, who must make his mark instead of signing his name.
CROMWELL is fifteen miles from Afton, near the western boundary of the county. The town was laid out in 1858, and the first cars came to the station in the summer of the follow- ing year. There is a good shipping business here and good local trade.
THAYER stands nine miles east of Afton, on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, just rising from the valley of Four Mile creek. The sta- tion was located in 1867, but the vil- lage was not laid out until 1868. The shipping business transacted here causes much local traffic.
KENT has already been mentioned as a station on the Creston Branch railroad iu the southwest of Union county. There is much shipping done here, as Kent stands in a good farming country, and other business is good in proportion.
CRESTON deserves more detailed at- tention as it is the starting point of a branch of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Com- pany projected the town in 1869, as a place of traffic, and its connection with one of the towns in this county entitles it to be noted here as a town whose rapid growth in the past, guar- entees its progress in the future.
Van Buren County is bounded on the south by the Missouri river, and is second west from the Mississippi, con- taining about four hundred and eighty square miles. This is one of the old- est counties in Iowa, and has many other claims on attention.
The Des Moines river runs diagon- ally through this county having a water course of forty-five miles in its area, an average width of eight hun-
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SKETCHES OF COUNTIES.
dred feet and a depth which is about uniform. Up this river went the Ione with the troops that kept order among the settlers and natives after the Black Hawk Purchase treaty, and pending the time when settlement could legally be allowed.
The current is rapid and the river's bed is rock, the scenery along the course of the stream being in many places surpassingly beautiful. Such a river might gladden a whole country, hut Van Buren has many other streams such as the Holcomh, Cheq- uest, Bear and Indian creeks which flow into the Des Moines from the north, and the southern tributaries, Stump, Lick, Rock, Honey, Copperas and Reeds creeks.
In the south the Fox rivers, Big and Little, flow into the state of Missouri and eventually swell the Mississippi with their modest volume. Big Cedar creek crosses the northeast of the county, draining some portion of this region. There is water at all seasons in all parts of Van Buren, many of the streams being fed by springs. Many of the streams give good powers which have been much improved. The Des- Moines was to have been much more largely used for navigation than it has been, the iron road having put slow and tedious processes of transit out of date, but if railroads had not come into operation there would have been a great effort to make this beautiful stream a channel of commerce.
The waters of the stream flow swift- ly and the sites of many dams indicate where mills and factories will go on increasing in value from year to year, as the population of this county is multiplied by the vast accretions from Europe and elsewhere, as well as by the slower process of natural increase.
Along this river and along all the streams in this county there are bodies of timber, which skirt and sometimes fill the valleys with prodigal profusion as the area of Van Buren is ahout half prairie, half timber and stream. Much of the timber in this county is beauti- ful as well as valuable. and the pro- cesses of natural planting in some cases and artificial planting in others, will not allow the quantity of woodland to decrease in the valley of the Des Moines for many years hence, or until the higher lands in the vicinity have been crowned with such growths as
will more than compensate for the denudation which may become inevit- able in making room for majestic cities.
The many streams traversing this county give to the surface an almost incessant roll, as the land rising from one river or creek dips to meet the next. None of the land is so much broken as to make cultivation impos- sible, and the drainage is so complete that there are no swamps in this county which interfere with the work of the husbandmen. Some of the bottom lands along the Des Moines, which were, at the first settlement, covered with timber, have been cleared for cultivation, but the woodland al- ternates with farms along both sides of the beautiful stream. The soil is very productive, and so are the prairie soils generally.
The supply of well water on tho prairies can be relied upon, but along the bluffs cisterns are in demand, al- though there are many springs of bright and pure water in those locali- ties. Generally the settlers in this county find no difficulty in procuring water for their stock, their farms, and for all domestic uses.
This county is one of the districts favored with coal deposits, the veins being from three to four feet thick ; but the quantity of timber available for fuel has prevented mining to any large extent for local use, and up to this time, mining for shipment has not been prosecuted on any considerable scale. The coal found is generally good, and the upper and middle meas- ures are clear of impurities ; but sul- phuret of iron is more plentiful in the lower measures. The three beds will afford employment to many thousands of miners, and will almost, as a mat- ter of. course, lead to large manufac- turing interests being established in Van Buren county.
Where the coal measures abound, stone can be relied on for buildings and manufacture, and these features are manifest in nearly every creek in this county. Sandstone is also found which hardens upon exposure, and is much used in building; but limestone of the quality procurable here is in greater favor. The Washington mon- umeut contains some of the "Iowa marble," as it is called, but really a very fine sample of highly finished
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
concrete limestone from Chequest creek. Similar stone has been found elsewhere in the county, but it con- tinues rare enough to be highly prized.
Limestone from these quarries in Van Buren county makes fine paving stone, and can be worked easily to the required thickness. There is only one stream, Fox river, on which the mate- rials for quicklime cannot be found in plenty, but even there a moderate sup- ply can he odtained. Clay and sand fit for bricks, and a very fine stratum of fire clay, five feet thick, have given employment to hundreds, for many years past; the productions from these deposits being of excellent qual- ity. There are iron ores found in many localities, but not enough to make it probable that the manufacture of iron and steel will become staple industries.
There is an artesian well near Farm- ington which, some years since, reached a subterranean river seven hundred and forty feet from the sur- face, after passing through a bed of pure white marble forty feet in thick- ness, at about one hundred feet below the river bed. The well has continued to throw a stream of water some feet above the surface, ever since the bore was completed; and as the stream has a strong flavor of Epsom salts, and is generally an unpleasant beverage, it is supposed to be very good for invalids, and for that large class of persons giv- en to the study of medical works for the better supply of symptoms for the diseases with which they think they are afflicted.
The manufacturing power which lies idle in this county, waiting for suitable investments, will build up an immense area of industry and wealth within the next quarter of a century. There are some large establishments in Van Buren county, but they do not constitute one hundredth part of the number and force of production which the hydraulic velocity of the Des Moines alone would keep in perpetual activity. Add to these facilities for an unsurpassed development, the wealth of force which lies buried in the coal measures waiting for capital to carry on the work of exhumation, and it will be seen at a glance that there is a wonderful era before this county, whenever men and money can
be found to do the work which solicits attention.
The fruit growing capacity of this county has been proved long since, as the county is one of the oldest in the state, and the farmers have pushed their opportunities to very good ac- count. Apples and an immense va- riety of small fruits can always be shipped early from this region. The soil is good in all parts, and the pro- ductions are various; but enough has beeu said already to show what are the climatic and other features of this county, and it must suffice to say, in conclusion, that whatever crops can be raised anywhere in Iowa can be bettered here.
Van Buren was separately organized in the year 1836, by the legislature, but the limits were not strictly de- fined, and it was not until 1839 that the county seat was located at Keosau- qua. There had been a great rivalry among the several towns of the coun- ty before that conclusion was arrived at, as almost every center of popula- tion was supposed to be peculiarly eligible for the honor of representing the administrative and judicial focus of the whole community.
Enterprises of great pith and mo- ment were in the meantime command. ing the best energies of the best men; there were mines to be tried, quarries to be opened and worked, rivers to be dammed, mill sites to be secured and improved, manufactories to be started, farms to be cultivated and permanent- ly improved, churches to be raised and organized, schools to be set upon a good foundation for the proper care of the young, and society itself to be built up from its foundation into such forms as would make its moral tone and mental force more operative for the general good than any conceivable or- ganization of police. All these works, in all their multitudinous ramifica- tions were set about by the citizens of Van Buren, and the herculean task was very fairly accomplished.
The railroads have traversed this county from an early day, and the shipping facilities are good. The Des Moines Valley Railroad, now better known as the Keokuk and Des Moines road, was the first to come into this territory, running about thirty miles up the Des Moines valley, and giving facilities for shipment at seven
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SKETCHES OF COUNTIES.
stations over a track which runs in both directions, south and east, from the Gate City of Iowa. There are also six stations on the Burlington and Southwestern Railroad, which runs through the southern townships, cross- ing the Des Moines river and the track of the other railroad at Farmington. making close connections with Chi- cago on one side and with Burlington on the other.
The necessity for schools was one of the points on which all classes were agreed from the first, and there are now normal and graded schools, and common schools in every town- ship, enough to satisfy all demands. Teachers hold institutes every year, and not only are the educators of the children thus moved to a glorious emulation, but the parents of the young are made to see in and through such gatherings how they may best cooperate with tutors in making school life attractive and efficient for the best development of the mental powers of that important class, which is now studying citizenship in the examples of our men and women.
There are twelve graded schools in the county, and one hundred and two not graded, which employ two hun- dred and twenty-one teachers, one hun- dred of the number being males, and the school property is valued at $121,000, the permanent school fund, $24,000, and the annual cost about $38,500.
There are some fine public buildings in Van Buren county, besides the school houses and churches. The soldiers who fell during the great re- bellion are commemorated by a mon- ument, near the court house at Keo- sauqua, which was dedicated in 1868.
The court house and the jail are not handsome, but they are substantial, and the prisoners have an opportunity to see a very beautiful country, from which they are temporarily secluded.
The bridge over the Des Moines at Keosauqua is a very handsome struc- ture of iron, over six hundred feet long, and the cost was $40,000.
The press of the county is marked by a fair average of ability, but there need not be much said on behalf of the fourth estate which is so well able to speak and act for itself.
KEOSAUQUA is the county seat of Van Buren county, and it is located
on the north bank of the Des Moines, near the great bend indicated by its name. Keosauqua stands four miles south of Summit station, only seven miles from the Missouri boundary, and off the line of the Keokuk and Des Moines railroad. The first settle- ment on its site took place in the year 1835, on the river bank. There were many other white settlers in the im- mediate vicinity, and in the year 1839 the town was finally surveyed and platted. During the same year a flour- ing mill was erected, and a dam built across the river, where a mill is stand- ing now.
The Keosauqua site is pleasant ; part of the city sits on the bottom land, and the remainder on a rounded bluff, overlooking the valley of the river. The residences of the principal citizens are very handsome, and there is a substantial appearance in the business houses.
The school house is of brick, and is a fine edifice, which cost when first erected, $15,000, with all the best mod- ern improvements, and the manage- ment of the board of education is as good as could be desired.
But for the unfortunate fact that the city of Keosauqua is four iniles dis- tant from railroad accommodation, the place must have become a great cen- ter of population and of enterprise. The bend of the river makes direct communication an impossibility. The city is naturally off the line of the road by reason of its situation on the bank of the stream.
The difficulty might have been over- come in part by a short branch of rail- road; but many of the earlier settlers are not inclined to run risks for the sake of posterity, and therefore there will be a further reign of inertia until the population is improved in tone to an extent which will call into opera- tion all the advantages which must make Keosauqua a vast depot of man- ufactures. There is not a better place on the Des Moines river for water power, and the further endowments of the city, with wood in abundance, coal for the winning, stone in exhaustless quarries, and clay for pottery and the manufacture of bricks, will, in the long run, necessitate the inclusion of this old town in the iron circle which girdles the world.
FARMINGTON, by its name, attempts
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to tell its story. The surrounding country is ricbly agricultural, and the position of the town, just at the point where the two lines join and diverge, the Keokuk and Des Moines railroad crossing the Burlington aud South- western, on the left bank of the Des Moines river, secures for the trading center a vast shipment of produce, bringing in its train a local trade which makes the town largely a par- ticipant in the successes of the farming and grazing communities.
The churches are numerous and well supported, some of the buildings being conspicuous for elegance. The public schools in Farmington testify to the public spirit of the people. The buildings are commodious, and the management excellent.
BIRMINGHAM stands in the north of Van Buren county, about eleven miles from Keosauqua, and although it bears the name of the great button manu- facturing city in England, the aims of the citizens have not gone in that di- rection. The town is surrounded by good farming country on rolling prai- rie, with wood, water, and coal, in limitless abundance, and the farmers in the locality are among the most prosperous in the state The main dependence for water supply for do- mestic purposes is the unfailing stream, percolating through the strata at about twenty-five feet from the sur- face.
The beauty of the town has been much an object with its citizens, who have expended much time and taste in the ornamentation of a well fenced park, with forest trees and ornamental shrubs. When public gatherings are held in this neighborhood, and the weather will permit of " all outdoors" being the locality for the assemblage, the public park affords a rostrum from which the debate of every pro- ject may be disseminated far and wide. Oratory has a basis of educa- tion in Birmingham which makes the local wittena gemote all the more at- tractive. The schools established here are very well attended, and the attain- ments of the pupils have been, for years past, presided over by educators of consummate ability. Two public schools and a college afford to botlı sexes first class opportunities for the development of brain power, and the preparation of their faculties for the
larger education which comes only by contact with the world.
BENTON'S PORT is of course a station on the river Des Moines, and it is also a shipping point on the Keokuk and Des Moines railroad. It is the trading center of a very wealthy farm- ing circle, on the left bank of the Des Moines, but the semicircle of hills which bounds the range of vision, as the river is left, makes the seclu- sion apparently as great as that which was enjoyed by Rasselas in his Hap- py Valley. When the visitor has pas- sed the hills he can see at one glance whence the wealth of Benton's Port must continue to come during a very prosperous future.
The town does not depend entirely on its shipments, as there is a large amount of water power made availa- ble by a dam at this point, but for the present, comparatively little use is made of these great advantages. Flouring operations and machinery of various kinds, driven by the Des Moines, give promise of much more extensive industries in future years, and the trade of the town is large.
The town is an independent school district, and there is a fine building for the accommodation of pupils in schools which are well graded, under a corps of very efficient teachers. There are very well organized church- es in Benton s Port, and many of the edifices would do credit to places much larger.
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