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 70
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The large streams give many in- valuable mill sites, and the whole of the water courses afford a bountiful supply of water for stock and for do- mestic use. Some of the larger streams have excellent fish in con- siderable variety. While on the sub- ject of water supply, it may be as well to state here that wells bottom on a permanent supply at various depths, according to the surface, seldom less than twenty, and just as rarely more than forty feet. Springs are often found bursting from the rocks and the various strata of the soil along the banks of the streams.
Skunk river and English river have large bodies of timber, and Crooked creek is also abundantly supplied; indeed, it may be generally affirmed that, throughout the county, there is enough of native varieties for fuel, fencing and building.
The plenitude of timber does not change the fact that the large propor- tion of the area of Washington county is prairie. There are vast regions which were at one time supposed to be irreclaimable prairie, on which no person would locate, and now the land thus discouragingly indicated is bet- ter settled, by a more prosperous class than even the fertile bottom lands, which, in some respects, distanced all competition. Bottom land and prai- rie, broken land and the fine belts and groves of timber, alike find their mas- ter in man, and to him they surrender the treasure which is his inheritance.
Building stone is not very plentiful, but enough has been found for all present needs along the principal
Washington has an area of five hun- dred and seventy-three square miles. I rivers, and limestone fit for manufac-
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ture is quite abundant. Sand and clay | mill sites. The facilities for shipment can be found everywhere in the drift on the Chicago and Southwestern Railroad, which are afforded at this point, bring much produce from the surrounding fertile country. Timber is abundant along the Skunk river, and so also is stone; consequently, Brighton has most of the conditions for a very prosperous career. formation, consequently the builder, at a loss for stone of the best quality, can procure just as many bricks as he may require, of the finest quality. Coal is the great requirement in this state, and, in that respect, Washington is not well furnished. There have been indications found which might Among the other villages, towns and postal stations are: Clay, Ains- worth, Crawfordsville, Dutch Creek, Daisy, Lexington, Richmond, Middle- burgh, Riverside, Wassonville, Valley, West Chester, Yatton and White Ash. deceive the half-informed, but the " find " near Brighton is clearly not a part of a great bed which might be mined. There is but very little coal here, and that little, if painsfully sought, would resemble the grains of wheat in a bushel of chaff, whereof Shakspeare waxes eloquent, and be not worthy of the necessary search.
This town was first built upon in the year 1839, and for the two years next ensuing, there was but a slow and desultory growth ; indeed, its pro- gress has never been very rapid.
About the year 1853, a newspaper was established in Washington, and for nearly two years it fought hard, but then "By the wayside fell and per- ished, weary with the march of life." The year following, another paper was inaugurated, and that lives to the present day, a respectable piece of journalism.
Soon after 1855 commenced, a bank was started in the city of Washington, and other such institutions followed, as a rival and eventually as a succes- sor to both the first mentioned. We have spoken of the city as if it had long since been incorporated, but in fact it was not incorporated until the year 1863.
The schools here are well graded and excellently organized, under a very able corps of teachers of both sexes. Next to that fact, the most significant circumstance in the growth of Washington occurred in the year 1858, when the Mississippi and Mis- souri Railroad was finished to this point, and since that date there has been a visible acceleration in its growth. The shipping business is very large, and various as extensive, bringing with it, as its almost unfail- ing complement, a large local trade which cements all classes in general prosperity.
BRIGHTON is about eleven miles southeast from Washington, near the Skunk river, which supplies first-class
Wayne County contains about five hundred and twenty-five square miles, and it stands in the southern tier of counties, fifth from the Mississippi river. Like most other counties in the state of Iowa, this county has a com- plete system of natural drainage which hardly admits of improvement by art. The watershed in this county runs nearly due east, and the South Fork of Charlton river flows to the east, fed by numerous small streams on both sides, on its way to the Missouri. The Grand river has numerous tributaries which flow south ward to their destina- tion through the southern townships. There is a stretch of prairie in this county varying from six to ten miles wide, and travelling right through the county. This divide was for many years known as the " Mormon Trail," because the saints passed along that way when they levanted from Illinois in 1846.
There are other patches of prairie, but they are broken by valleys and by belts of timber which diversify the scene most pleasantly. The longer stretches of prairie where they are not brought under cultivation are also beginning to put on the aspect of a juvenile forest.
The drift deposit with all its pecu- liarities of soil and surface predomi- nates in this county, consequently the rivers and streams on their way down. from the high prairies have cut their way eagerly down toward the stratified rocks and in some cases the river bed lies more than a hundred feet below the surface level, where the stream flows through a narrow valley with sides more or less declivitous. Again in some regions, the sides have be- come disintegrated until the valleys
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rise by gradual transitions to the up- lands which are generally rolling. Except on the declivities which are few, the surface admits of easy and profitahle cultivation. The aoil pecu- Îiar to this deposit is too well known to need description, and the crops pos- sible in such a country cannot require further elucidation here.
Some coal has heen found in this county, and many of the exposures in Walker's Branch, and in the town- ships of Wright and South Fork, have been mined, but, unless very deep shafts reveal more profitable measures, there will not be much value for labor or capital in the coal mines of Wayne county. The supply of building stone is limited, but lime can be manufac- tured in abundance, and brick clay will supply all needs.
Timber is not very abundant, but it is not very limited and the native growths springing up will soon meet every demand. Hedging is in great favor here and fruit trees of many kinds are becoming very plentiful. Every hedge that is planted gives an incentive to further enterprise in the same line, and groves as well as orch- ards will soon command general at- tention.
The first settlers in Wayne county came from Kentucky and settled in Grand River township, making their home in their wagons until better provision could be made, but the sup- position then was, that the territory was in Missouri. Wayne county was separately organized in the year 1851, when only thirty men voted, and the year's income was less than sixty-five dollars. The county seat was located at Corydon, the site of an unsurveyed town where some dusky Phillis might have listened to the love song of lier Indian admirer, but otherwise the name would become a mystery to some dry-as-dust archæologist a few centuries hence, and we hasten to re- move disquieting doubts from the yet unhorn intellect by saying that the name was borrowed from Corydon, Indiana.
CORYDON atands near the center of the county on dry, rolling prairie, and its geographical position entitled it to be selected as the seat of administra- tion. There are several newspapers published here, and they all deserve notice. The school accommodation
suffices for the present. The Charlton river, and its fine groves of timber, are only four miles from the county seat, and other groves, not quite so extensive, still nearer, consequently fuel and materials for inexpensive buildings can be procured with great ease. There is considerable business transacted in the town, and generally there is an aspect of comfort among the people, but a railway would large- ly add to their enjoyment, by affording outlets for their produce.
ALLERTON is four miles southwest of Corydon, on the line of the Chicago and Southwestern Railroad, which is really a branch of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific road. Situated just as pleasantly as Corydon, it has facilities for traffic which can only be secondarily availed of by the county seat, hence although still young, it is increasing very rapidly. The men who come here with their produce, take hence their supplies. and the commercial value of that fact needs no enforcement. Grain elevators, ware- houses, stores, workshops, mills, are all multiplying their demands for la- bor, and the thrifty earth is able to give bread to all comers.
The provision for schools in Aller- ton is really good, and the children exhibit an alacrity in their tasks which, better than any words, must bear witness to the efficiency of the system under which the children are brought en rapport with their teach- ers. Churches are well supported here, and newspapers are maintained in good running order.
LINEVILLE was born in 1848, and is thus one of the oldest towns in Wayne county, but until the Chicago and Southwestern Railroad passed through the place, there was an air of drowsi- ness over the place such as might have been noticed in Sleepy Hollow, before Rip Van Winkle sank into his fateful slumber, and awoke to find that Schneider was no more; that his mus- ket was no longer worthy of the name, that his clothes were in ribbons, and his constitution completely broken. Lineville was aroused in season, and it is now fully up to the demands of the age. Business is disposed of with alacrity, schools are sustained with cheerfulness, and every good work is pushed ahead with vim. There are schools for the young, newspapers
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for the adult, and churches for all | for other growths, better adapted to classes.
HUMESTON stands on the Leon Branch of the Burlington and Mis- souri River Railroad, in the center of the northwestern section of the coun- ty, surrounded by fine farms and a finer population, which will extend the village to a great town, through the mediun of its facilities by trade and shipments.
SEYMOUR is on the the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, near the east- ern boundary of the county, and may be described as a thriving little town, full of business, with churches and a school, and a very enterprising news- paper which deserves all the support that it asks for.
CLIO is only a village, but it has a railroad and a post office to supply the needs of a thriving agricultural community ; hence it is bound to be- come a place of wealth and import- ance. The Chicago and Southwest- ern Railroad runs through this village en route from Allerton to Lineville.
KNIFFIN stands on the same line of the railroad between Allerton and Sey- mour, and it contains a post office which draws some business to the vil- lage. There is a fair share of ship- ping business done here.
CONFIDENCE is a village with a post office, but no railroad station, being situated on the prairie in the north- east of Wayne county.
BETHLEHEM, situated in the north of the county, can be described in the same terms with Confidence.
There are some other villages and post offices, such as: Genoa, Lewis- burg, Cambria, Promise City, New York, Warsaw and Peoria.
Webster County is a beautiful com- bination of all that is required to make a territory charming to the tourist and delightful to the farmer. Away from the margin of the streams the country is sufficiently undulating to relieve the scene from being mo- notonous, and to secure adequate drainage, but near the water courses, which intersect the surface at frequent intervals, there is broken land and hill and bluff in perpetually chang- ing contour. The bluffs are cut through by ravines which are slowly widening into valleys; the bottom lands are changing their native grass
the purposes of man. The streams are margined on every hand by belts of native wood, and wherever some natural protection intervened to save the woodland in byegone years from destruction by swift-leaping flame, the trees have massed their splendor to produce a forest which in the sun- set glories of autumn seem to mimic the glowing colors of the destroyer. Nearly one-tenth of the surface of Webster county is woodland, and the supply is well spread over the area so that no portion suffers from even com- parative scarcity, and no region com- plains of too much.
The soil on the uplands averages from eighteen inches to two feet deep, and in it a black vegetable mold, mixed with sand in small quantities, just enough to make the surface easy for tillage and drainage, secures to the farmer all that he could desire in such a position. The bottom lands are even more fertile, and the amount of moisture which can be stored in the soil and subsoil suffices to guaranty this section of country from any se- vere visitation of drought. The sub- soil can be brought to the surface with advantage whenever the agricul- turist desires a change.
Good springs of water bubble from the rock and from the greensward in a thousand places, and wells seldom require more than twenty fcet sinking to bottom on permanent supplies enough for stock and domestic pur- poses all the year through. Yet with all this wealth of moisture, there are but few patches of wet land, and these when some purely local cause of obstruction has been removed be- come the best soil ever broken by the plow.
The Des Moines, the Boone rivers, and the Lizards, North and South, are the principal streams in Webster county. The first runs from north to south through the middle of the coun- ty, but with many river like convolu- tions. The Lizards, North and South respectively, run from northwest to southeast and from the southwest to the northeast until near Fort Dodge the two join, running east to fall into the Des Moines. The Boone runs in a westerly direction in the southern townships, emptying into the Des Moines. There are many smaller
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streams which go to make up the sum total of drainage and water supply for Webster county.
When the Sioux and the Musquakas ceded twenty miles cach of their ter- ritory to the United States as a kind of guaranty that they would allow the authorities at Washington to keep the peace between them, Webster county was part of the land so handed over into military possession.
Before the Indian title had become extinguished, the legislature of Iowa had laid out and named counties in the wild lands where the red men still had their lodges; but the names at first adopted were abandoned at a later date, and fresh lines were drawn, changing the boundaries at first set- tled. The troops abandoned Fort Dodge in 1856, and the region was given over to the civil arm of authori- ty, after which there was quite a rapid growth of population.
When the county was first organ- ized, the seat of justice was located at Homer, in the year 1853; but three years later a popular vote transferred that honor to Fort Dodge, and a court house was erected there in 1858, at a cost of nearly $40,000. The custom- ary quarreling about the county seat caused much loss of valuable time and not a little expenditure in law. The early population in Webster coun- ty was much addicted to law, as there were endless conflicting claims which everybody wished to buy or sell, and to which clear titles could seldom be given.
Coal can be found underlying about four-fifths of the area, consisting mainly of the lower coal measures, with very well developed beds, which are mined by drifting from the ravines generally, but will pay for more ex- pensive operations. Some of the beds are eight feet thick, and very few are less than two feet, the quality being particularly good. When the census of the past year was taken, there wers nineteen beds of coal being partially worked in Webster county.
Iron ore which will pay for smelt- ing, has been found in this county, and an immense deposit of gypsum has been found near Fort Dodge, be- sides which there are valuable beds of saudstone in some places, disrupting the coal beds. There is in Webster county an unusual proportion of min-
eral wealth : the ochre beds are heavy and the clays suited for fire brick and for pottery will give employment to many thousands.
Numerous mounds of various kinds have been explored in this county, and they have respectively been used for burial, for sacrifice, for observa- tion and for defense, but the Indians are unable to give any information concerning them, as they assert that the mounds were in existence before their people came to the country.
The early days of this settlement, after the soldiers had been withdrawn, were disturbed by the peculations and outrages of the Indians, but it is much to be doubted whether the red men were not more sinned against than sinning.
FORT DODGE, the county seat, is on the east bank of the Des Moines, about eighty miles from Des Moines city, and ou the Iowa division of the Illi- nois Central Railway, the terminus of the Des Moines and Fort Dodge Rail- road being located here. The city ia built on a plateau of three terraces, rising at the highest point nearly one hundred and fifty feet above the river level, and the site is beautiful.
The Des Moines river is very clear at this point, and the Lizard river, which empties into the greater river on the east side of Fort Dodge, gives excellent water power. The two creeks, Soldier and Deer, are also near the city.
In the year 1856, the United States land office was opened here, and dur- ing the same year the first railroad was located here, since which time there has been rapid growth, the pop- ulation now being nearly four thou- sand. The buildings of the Illinois Central Railroad Company here are very fine, and the town has numerous industries which give extensive em- ployment.
The public school buildings are good, and the system of tuition adopt- ed gives general satisfaction. There is a Catholic educational establish- ment here, which has usually about two hundred pupils, and the newspa- pers and churches, as well as the busi- ness interests of the place are flour- ishing.
DUNCOMBE is a town nine miles from Webster City, which was laid off by the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Rail-
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road Company in the year 1869. The shipping effected at this point is con- siderable, and the local trade is good, but there are no prominent industries.
Where coal is being worked there are many small villages, but there are no features of interest which call for notice, except in an itinerary or work of that kind.
Winnebago County stands in the center of the northern tier, and con- tains about four hundred square miles. Lime creek, a confluent of the Shell- rock, is nearly one hundred feet wide in some places as it flows through Winnebago county. There are good fish in its waters, and many excellent mill sites invite larger improvements than have been so far. "There are some beautiful lakes here, but not very extensive. The Twin lakes are so called because of their location near together; and Rice lake contains an area of about one square mile. Springs are numerous, and wells give permanent good water at from ten to twenty feet.
Undulating and rolling prairie, with occasionally in the southeast land bro- ken and well timbered, will stand as the general description of Winnebago county. To the west the soil is good, but the rolling prairie has very little timber. The soil is loam, with sandy intermixture, such as we have de- scribed elsewhere. The timber on Lime creek is heavy, and Coon grove, near the center of the county, is a very fine body of wood.
The boulders on this range of coun- try are the main reliance of builders, who use them for foundations, and some of the boulders make a good quality of quick lime.
There are about two thousand acres of peat land in this county, which will be useful for fuel, but the land is not a prejudicial swamp.
The earliest white settlement in this county dates from 1855, when Rice - lake attracted favorable notice, and after that time other settlers came - slowly in. The quantity of gaine in the county was then very large, most of the early comers who were skilled
- in the use of the rifle being able to supply their tables abundantly. Bears were seen here as late as 1856.
seat of justice was located in Forest City.
FOREST CITY stands on the west bank of Lime creek, near the southern boundary of the county, on high rol- ling ground, with timber to the east and northeast, but prairie stretches west and south as far as the eye can reach, and the agricultural resources of the county are all but unbounded. The town was laid out in 1856, and a mill was soon after erected. The court house was built in the year 1861, L and subsequently increased and im- proved.
There was a school building erected in 1873, and there is a well graded school which is well conducted. There is a newspaper in goods hands in Forest City.
LAKE MILLS is a small town near Rice Lake, about fifteen miles from Forest City, in a fine grove, and sur- rounded by beautiful farming land. The first beginning of the town dates from 1869, but there had been a post office there some two years or more before that time, and several mills.
The village has suffered from fire, its school house and its mills were de- stroyed, but the people roused them- selves, and the evil was made condu- cive to greater movements in the same direction. The school is very well conducted, and there is a very good weekly paper.
BENSON GROVE is on the east side of Lime creek, six miles from Forest City, with a fine body of timber back of the town, aud some excellent farm- ing land. The town was laid out in 1867, but it waits for railroad develop- ment, and a road has been graded which is to supply that desideratum. The public school is a credit to the locality.
Winneshiek County is likely to become a first class agricultural sec- tion, the surface alternates between timber and prairie, but along the streams there are many bold bluffs, and the scenery is much diversified. There are many excellent streams, some of which afford water powers of great value, and many mills are in operation. The Upper Iowa river is a fine stream, which flows over and through a large area of country. The Canoe river flows north of the Upper
The organization of the county was effected in the year 1857, and the | Iowa, giving many mill sites, and the
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Turkey river is nearly as large as the Upper Iowa.
The Milwaukee and St. Paul rail- road, with its branch from Conover to Decorah, supplies the shipping de- mands of this county in an exceptional manner. The stations are at Ossian, Castalia, Conover, Calmar, and Ridg- way, and an immense aggregate of business is transacted.
This territory was occupied by the Winnebagoes until the year 1848, but a mititary post was erected here eight years earlier, to protect the peaceful residents on the soil from more war- like and predatory tribes. Every in- ducement that could be offered was tried, to civilize the red men, but nothing could wean them from the chase and the forest, so that the Chris- tian mission and the Washington of- ficial found no fruit from all their la- bors. Eventually the tide of settle- ment surged over the land, and the red men were taken elsewhere.
County organization was effected in the year 1851, when permanent settle- ment had been in operation about three years, and Decorah was made the county seat. There were many dis- putes about the location, but Decorah succeeded in retaining the nomina- tion. The county was among the most patriotic during the great rebellion, and its school record has been of the most praiseworthy description from the earliest days. The court house which now stands with the jail in its basement, cost $18,000 in the year 1858, the land having been given to the county for the purpose.
THE CITY OF DECORAH stands on the upper Iowa river, and is the seat ofadministration in Winneshiek coun- ty. It is claimed that Winneshiek, a chief of the Winnebagoes, once occu- pied the site of Decorah before white settlers came here. Decorah was also a chief of the same tribe, and it is well that the names of those few good men, who have left a good record among the red men who have come into contact with the white race, should be remem- bered in naming our new cities.
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