USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume I > Part 15
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The Luella on the first of June brought to Fort Des Moines, besides a big load of freight, several passengers including Col. T. A. Walker, of the U. S. Land Office, and his family, Joseph B. Stewart, Mrs. J. W. Morris and chil- dren, Landon Hamilton, afterwards founder of a museum recently bequeathed to the State Historical Department. James Campbell and others.
"The Sangamon, Alice, Luella, Nevada and others made frequent trips to lower ports during the boating season."
Mr. Hussey humorously describes the Julia Dean's new style of "heaving the lead." Her captain on approaching "a suspicious looking place in the river, would order his tallest deckhand overboard who would wade in front of the boat seeking out the deepest water and the pilot would "steer for him."
A sudden rise in the river once enabled the Julia Dean to make the distance between Fort Des Moines and Ottumwa in a single day-probably beating the record.
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Mr. Hussey says, in 1854 Fort Des Moines caught the steamboat fever. Peter Myer was sent down the river to buy the Colonel Morgan. A corporation had been formed in February including such public spirited, citizens as B. F. Allen, James Sherman, R. W. Sypher and James Campbell. This corporation, organized in conformity to Chapter 44 of the Code of Iowa, was entitled the Fort Des Moines Steamboat Company, its object being "to buy, build, navigate and run a steamboat or boats on the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers and tribu- taries; to build docks, warehouses and storerooms, and to do a general for- warding and commission business." The capital stock was placed at $20,000. Its directors were: Addison S. Vorse, Samuel Gray and Reuben W. Sypher. Its incorporators were: Samuel Gray, Curtis Bates, Otis Briggs, . Reuben W. Sypher, P. M. Casady and A. Newton.
In 1855 record has been preserved of the arrival in Des Moines of the New Georgetown, Julia Dean, Add Hine, Badger State and Little Morgan. The season was short, the upper river not being very navigable.
In 1856, The Michigan, a small steamer opened the season, arriving April 16. Later. the Alice, Badger State, Michigan and Julia Dean made trips to and from Des Moines.
In 1857, the season opened early in April with the arrival of the Alice. The Michigan arrived April 8; the Badger State, April II.
Mr. Hussey finds in an old faded copy of the manifest of the Badger State, this sample cargo delivered at Des Moines :
G. M. Hippee & Co., 68 boxes of glassware.
Little, Garrison & Co., 104 plows, 3 casks glassware.
Laird Brothers & Co., 5 sacks of coffee, I doz. buckets, 2 bbls. rice, I box of loaf sugar, 2 bbls. syrup, I box soap, 2 boxes raisins, 10 drums of figs, 2. boxes sundries, 20 sacks, dried apples, 2 sacks of dried peaches, 12 boxes cod- fish, 3 boxes herring, I sack of twine.
Childs, Sanford & Co., 2 ice chests, 4 packages of furniture, 2 boxes iron bands, 2 stoves, 2 boxes hardware.
Galbraith, Latshaw & Woodwell, 6 packages of mdse.
W. F. Burgett, 200 sacks of salt.
Cavenor, Ayres & Co., 7 casks of glassware.
J. & I. Kuhn, II boxes merchandise.
Newton & Keene, 67 pkgs. mdse.
Lovejoy, Thompson & Có., 68 pkgs. mdse.
S. M. Collins, 18 packages of goods.
Redhead & Dawson, 4 boxes of stationery, 2 boxes curtains and fixtures. Without name, 300 barrels of whisky.
The Clara Hine, the Skipper, the Alice, the Michigan, the Morgan, the Badger State and the Add Hine made regular trips to Des Moines, the Mor- gan commencing late in the season, and departing in the spring of 1858, tak- ing a cargo of pork to St. Louis.
The year 1858 was a wet year, and the river was alive with steamers. From March 10 to the season's close, the Morgan, the Clara Hine, the Delta, the Ed Manning, the Skipper, the Des Moines Valley, the Alice, the Add Hine, the Defiance, and others came and went to and from Fort Des Moines. Some of these boats made as many as twelve round trips during the season.
A sample of the activities of this wet year is given by Mr. Hussey in an extract from an old diary showing arrivals May 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
The one record of steamboat navigation on the Raccoon found by Mr. Hussey, gives color of truth to the map of Fort Des Moines published in 1854. "Early in June, 1858," writes Mr. Hussey, "the Colonel Morgan made a trip a short distance up the Raccoon, turning around at about the location of the present Des Moines waterworks plant. It was a very pleasant occasion, and the novelty was much enjoyed. The excursionists, as remembered, were James Sherman, J. M. Dixon of the Register, Will Porter of the Journal, Ed. Marsh, Tac.
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Hussey and others. The river was high and there was little difficulty in navi- gating the crooked and narrow stream."
The wet year, 1858, was made memorable by an excursion down the Des Moines on the Alice. Among its projectors were Judge John Mitchell, Ed. Downer, 'Alexander Talbott, Ed. Marsh, and J. A. Woodward. About fifty couples participated. The boat went down to a point below Palmyra. On the return, after safely passing Rattlesnake Bend, the boat was tied up and the party "took to the woods." Supper was served on the boat. The evening was spent in dancing. The party reached home about midnight.
On March 23, '58, at the adjournment of the legislature, at the new Capital, the roads were impassable, and all the members who could reach their homes by steamboat took passage on the Skipper. The river was high and filled with driftwood. For safety the steamer was tied up at night, resuming its journey next day. The legislators were delivered at various points along the line, the last ones taking the cars for the Mississippi river at Bentonsport, then the terminus of the Des Moines Valley Railroad.
The uncertainties of river travel were equaled only by travel on land. Mr. Hussey has drawn from a pioneer of Fort Des Moines a tale of woe (located in August in the early Fifties,) which is hard to associate with a civilization scarcely more than a half-century old, and now made accessible by steam and electric railroad lines and by river-to-river roads. Mrs. Cook had been visit- ing in Davenport, and finding the stage road through the Skunk valley im- passable, Mr. Cook boarded the. Clara Hine, Captain Patton, to meet his wife at Keokuk and escort her home by boat. By some mischance, Mr. and Mrs. Cook and Captain Patton arrived at Bentonsport too late to take the boat, the mate having headed the Clara Hine up the river. The captain, Mr. Cook and several others hired a coach to Keosauqua, thinking to overtake the boat ; but in this they were disappointed: the boat had gone. After supper a party of six hired two carriages to convey them to Ottumwa. At eleven that night, near Libertyille, they were overtaken by a thunderstorm, and found refuge till morning in a farm-house. Thence, next morning, to Libertyville, where they remained till II at night, when two "mud wagons" of the Western Stage Com- pany came along. Having failed to overtake the steamboat, the party boarded the stage for Fort Des Moines. Mr. Cook never forgot any detail of that ride. He says :
"The streams were all out of their banks, and many times we were com- pelled to put the baggage on top of the coach while the passengers climbed on top of the seats to keep out of the water. We were five hours going from Eddyville to Oskaloosa, a distance of ten miles. We had dinner, supper and breakfast at every station between Ottumwa and Des Moines."
Another "wet year" followed, and steamboating was unusually active be- tween Keokuk and Des Moines. The season opened early and remained open until September. The Clara Hine was first to land at Des Moines,-with sixty-four tons of freight. The Charley Rodgers followed with fifty tons. The Flora Temple, the largest boat to reach Des Moines made two through trips that season. It is recorded that on one April day five steamboats lay at the wharf in Des Moines, loading and unloading cargoes. The Charley Rodgers made thirteen round trips that year and five times ventured as far up the river as Fort Dodge.
A copy of 'an old "manifest" of the Clara Hine dated March, 1859, shows that in addition to forty-two passengers, the boat carried much salt, coffee, sugar, nails, glass, sheet iron, molasses, drugs, soap, assorted hardware, gen- eral merchandise and ale. The. Des Moines importers were Laird Brothers, C. P. Luse & Co., W. S. Barnes, Harry Stephenson, McKee & Yerger, F. W. Woodruff, Keyes & Crawford, H. Beekman and George O'Kell.
A river event of this year was the Republican State Convention held in Des Moines in Sherman's Hall, June 23. The public's dependence on the river
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as late as 1859 is evidenced by the fact that many of the delegates living on or near the Mississippi river took boats from Des Moines to Ottumwa, then within six miles of the western terminus of the Burlington & Missouri railroad.
In 1861, the Des Moines river fleet had narrowed down to three boats : the Add Hine, the DeMoine Belle and the DeMoine City. These ran be- tween Des Moines and the Keokuk and Fort Des Moines railroad terminus at Eddyville. The war had begun. The rest of the river fleet had departed for southern waters where work was plenty and pay good. Twenty-four trips be- tween these points are recorded.
In March, 1862, Adjutant General Baker arranged with all the steamers running between Ottumwa and Des Moines to carry home on the - Upper Des Moines all wounded, disabled and discharged soldiers. So far as Mr. Hussey could learn, the boats operating under this contract were the DeMoine Belle, the DeMoine City, Little Morgan, Nevada, Alice and Clara Hine.
The flood raged from the first to the 16th of April and for a second time bottoms overflowed and the legislators had to be carried across the bottom from the west side to the Capitol in row boats.
Isaac Brandt, for many years afterward one of Des Moines' most promi- nent citizens, appears in 1862, as a merchant in the old Griffiths Block, on Locust street, northeast of the present C. & N. W. depot, on the east side. A consignment of queensware, glassware and salt arrived for him from St. Louis on the Little Morgan. But as the water had flooded the lowland on the east side, the question was: How could the goods be delivered? The Little Morgan solved the problem. Floating down the river a little way "and striking just the right place in the overflowed bottoms, nosed her way up to the store, which stood on the 'second ledge,' or bank, tied up almost at the door, threw out her gang planks and unloaded the goods as if it were an every day cccurrence. A large crowd collected to see the sight, which, so far as known, was never wit- nessed before or since. When the goods were unloaded, the boat backed gracefully out, found the channel a mile or two below and was soon on her way to the lower ports."
The manifest for this trip shows consignments for other dealers in Des Moines, as follows: Laird Brothers, Latshaw & Woodwell, Keyes & Crawford, Rollins & Harmon, W. W. Moore, John McWilliams, H. M. McAlister.
At the close of the legislature that year, April 8, all who could return by water did so in the steamboat DeMoine City, running from Des Moines to Ottumwa.
In the spring of '62, Messrs. Keyes & Crawford of Des Moines built a large flatboat and loaded it with 41 tons of pork and lard and started it out for Ottumwa; whence the cargo was to be shipped by rail to its destination. Captain C. W. Keyes and five men constituted the crew. At Red Rock, the boat struck a rock and sank. Help was obtained and the cargo was finally saved.
The year 1862 virtually closed navigation on the Des Moines. The near approach of the railroad, and the demand for steamers elsewhere, by reason of the war, were the direct causes.
Down to 1866, "the Des Moines river was legally recognized as a navigable stream,' across which no dam or bridge could be built which would tend to obstruct its free navigation by legally chartered river steamboats."
A law passed the Eleventh General Assembly, in 1866, repealing all laws requiring locks to be constructed in dams, and draws to be constructed in bridges across the Des Moines, thus legally opening the river to the oncoming railroads.
CHAPTER X.
THE PART OF FORT DES MOINES IN THE IOWA MOVEMENT FOR RAILROADS.
As late as 1854, there was not a mile of railroad in the State of Iowa. In 1856, when the Sixth General Assembly located the future Capitol of Iowa in Des Moines. the Capital city was miles removed from any line of railroad and accessible only by steamboat, stage-coach and private conveyance. The land grants of 1856 were hailed as an unmixed blessing to Iowa; but the immediate results for good carried along with them a train of disappointments and losses to many individuals and to whole communities as well. But the blessings so far out- weighed the disadvantages, that we may now regard the action of the General Government in 1856 as the turning point in the history of Iowa and of its Capi- tal city,-the miracle which transformed a comparatively inaccessible region of remote possibilities into a promising commonwealth through whose veins coursed the life-blood of the nation.
But this result was not attained without prolonged and arduous effort ex- tending over many years and involving much expenditure of time and money and patience on the part of the public-spirited citizens of Iowa-than whom there were none more public-spirited than the citizens of Fort Des Moines.
The first formal action taken by the State of Iowa in the matter of railroads was a memorial to Congress, passed at the extra session of the First General Assembly and approved January 15, 1849, praying for a donation of land to aid in the construction of a railroad from Keokuk to Dubuque, thus establishing "a link in the chain of railroad, from not only Keokuk, but Fort Des Moines, Council Bluffs, and the intermediate points."
The era of conventions having for their object the promotion of railroads up and down and across Iowa commenced in 1849. The first general gathering, styling itself a national convention, held in St. Louis September 16, 1849, did much to arouse the public mind to the necessity of a concerted movement upon the Congress of the United States. It did more: it aroused all Iowa to the evi- dent purpose of the promoters of that convention to make St. Louis the grand central terminus of the railroads in future to be built to the Pacific coast. Until this purpose became apparent, Iowa first as a territory and then as a state, had contented herself with memorials for military roads connecting the two rivers.
To checkmate the St. Louis scheme and secure Iowa's share of government aid, a mass convention of the citizens of Johnson county was held in Iowa City October 27, "for the purpose of deliberation and action in reference to the im- provement of the interior of Iowa by railways." Governor Lucas presided over its deliberations. A committee, of which Curtis Bates of Fort Des Moines was chairman, presented resolutions which were unanimously adopted, requesting Iowa's senators and representatives to use their influence to procure a grant of lands in Iowa for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Rock Island to Council Bluffs, via Iowa City and Fort Des Moines, and also from Dubuque to Keokuk. The convention recommended, among other measures, the holding of conventions in Davenport and Fort Des Moines on the second Monday in De- cember for the purpose of memorializing Congress, etc.1
1 The Chair appointed as delegates to the Fort Des Moines convention: Joseph T. Fales. Le Grand Byington, G. D. Palmer, H. H. Winchester, John M. Kidder. John Powel, Wm. P. Clark and P. H. Patterson.
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The citizens of Polk county met at the county seat November 14, to arrange for a railroad convention, at Fort Des Moines in December. Judge Mckay pre- sided and Hoyt Sherman acted as Secretary. A committee of five was appointed to notify the citizens of adjoining counties and solicit their attendance, also a committee to draft resolutions.2 The convention hailed "with pleasure the deep and thrilling interest manifested by the spirited and enterprising citizens of Johnson and other counties lying east of us in the Great Western railroad ex- tension from the Atlantic to the Pacific, via Davenport, Iowa City, Fort Des Moines and Council Bluffs," and pledged every endeavor in support of the measure.
The convention of upper Des Moines counties 3 was held in Fort Des Moines December 10, 1849, with Jacob Frederick in the chair and Andrew J. Stevens secretary, both of Polk county. B. F. Allen and W. T. Mann, of Polk, E. D. Guiberson, of Madison, and Samuel Mars, of Dallas, were chosen vice presi- dents. Eight counties were represented. Strangely enough, the only county that failed to respond was Johnson, in which county the movement originated.
Dr. J. M. Vaughan addressed the convention explaining the call and urging immediate action. On motion of Col. T. Baker the convention resolved that a committee be appointed from Polk and adjoining counties to draft and circulate a memorial to congress asking a grant of land "for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Davenport, via Iowa City and Fort Des Moines to the eastern terminus of the great national road at Council Bluffs."
Much space is given in the Gazette of February 15, 1850, to a large and en- thusiastic convention held in the court house, Fort Des Moines, on February 9th, "for the purpose of considering and adopting means for constructing a rail- road from Davenport to Council Bluffs and for appointing delegates to the Iowa City convention on the 20th.4
The editor styles the gathering "a general outpouring of the people," adding : "Never before have we witnessed as much enthusiasm in a public gathering." W. W. Williamson presided and Byron Rice was secretary, A. J. Stevens, Will- iam McKay and Jonathan Lyon reported resolutions, which were unanimously adopted. The resolutions presented the advantages of the Fort Des Moines route and the argument that "the General Government, as a great Land Holder, is, alike with the State of Iowa, interested in the construction of the work, and
2 The first committee named was: H. H. Saylor, B. Granger, R. W. Sypher, J. M. Perry and Jonathan Lyon. The second: Barlow Granger, J. M. Perry and E. T. Collett. 3 Polk county sent as delegates to the December convention: Des Moines township- Wm. Mckay, J. M. Perry, B. F. Allen, Thomas McMullin, J. A, Holland, Wm. T. Marvin, Enoch Hickman, Barlow Granger, Wm. P. Koger, A. B. Fuller, A. T. Reynolds. Richland- John D. Hartman, John Farley, John M. Parkinson. Greenfield-John Mclaughlin. John Shoemaker, Charles Keene. Linn -- James Hart, Daniel Barker, Elisha Perkins. Camp- Thomas Mitchell, William Wallace, Robert Warren. Four Mile-Jacob Frederick, T. H. Napier, Lewis Barlow. Skunk-I. J. Cory, Henry Burge. Saylor-Rezin Howard, Franklin Nagle, John Saylor. Madison -- J. M. Martz, L. M. Small, John Crabtree, Jr.
4 As the list of delegates named in this convention include nearly all the pioneer rail- road bocmers of Fort Des Moines, it is well to preserve it, as it appears in the Gazette of Feb. 15, 1850 :
Hon. Wm. Mckay, Dr. T. K. Brooks, Samuel Gray Benjamin Bryant, Dr. William Dewey, Barlow Granger, B. F. Allen, L. D. Winchester, Judge Jones, J. Frederick, Dr. J. M. Vaughan, Benjamin Saylor, Dr. H. H. Saylor. Æ. T. Reynolds, O. R. Jones, A. J. Ste- vens, Henry Everly, W. H. McHenry, Marshall Townsley, Dr. P. B. Fagen, P. M. Casady. Lewis Barlow, Franklin Nagle, W. A. Scott, J. M. Perry, Dr. F. Childs, John Farley, W. W. Williamson, J. S. Dean, J. E. Jewett, B. Rice, R. W. Sypher, S. M. Lyon, Thos. Mc- Mullin, James Campbell, I. J. Cole, Isaac Lawson. William Burbridge, J. Church, T. H. Napier, William Jones, Madison Young, John A. McFarlane, George Bebee, C. Stutsman, Dr. E. T. Collett, Wm. Kraus. Geo. Oglesby, Thos. Mitchell, Wm. Cooper, J. M. Thrift, Moses W. Chapline, W. W. Clapp, John Saylor, Wm. T. Marvin, Martin Tucker, W. H. Mecham, J. Thornton, H. Mitchell, B. Dix, A. B. Fuller, Benjamin Luce, Wm. Ware, L. P. Sherman, G. Holland, Edward Hall, Hoyt Sherman, Benjamin F. Hartley, Edwin Hall, F. Burbridge, James I. Thompson, Charles Mckay, R. Holcomb, Philip Johns, J. C. Culbert- son, Rev. T. Bird.
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would be more than compensated for a liberal grant of land to aid in completing said road, by the increased sale of the public lands along the pro- posed route."
These resolutions, with variations in the wording, form the basis of most of the resolutions afterwards adopted in the conventions held at Fort Des Moines. "The convention was ably and eloquently addressed by Hon. Wm. McKay, Col. Thos. Baker, Dr. Dewey, Dr. Vaughan, Barlow Granger, C. C. Van, Dr. Brooks, and others."
The Gazette quotes extensively from the speech of Chairman Williamson, at whose instance the convention had been called. The chairman enunciated the Whig doctrine of the period, that it was "the duty of the General Government to aid in carrying on a system of Internal Improvements." And, since Internal Improvements had become "a local issue," there was not a suggestion of protest from the many democrats present, among whom were such able defenders of democratic doctrine as, P. M. Casady, Barlow Granger and W. H. McHenry !
The Gazette assures its Iowa City friends that the "upper Des Moines Re- public will be there en masse," that "preparations are now being made by the delegates to start on Saturday so as to reach the city as early as Tuesday noon."
It was hardly to be expected that seventy-five delegates would all find it convenient to make an overland journey of two days and a half, each way, and in mid-winter, to attend a convention which at most could do no more than make emphatic the general need of an east and west railroad across the State and the general demand that Government should appropriate from its vast holdings of land for development of its own. The wonder is that Polk county should be represented-as it was-by nineteen delegates.5
The convention, in which Judge Casady, Dr. Dewey and Judge Mckay took prominent part, united on resolutions, prepared and read by ex-Governor Lucas, strongly presenting "the duty of the General Government to provide at the earliest possible period" for the construction of a central national railroad from the Mississippi valley to the Pacific, etc., and that the railroad "from Daven- port by Iowa City and Fort Des Moines to Council Bluffs" was the most feasible route, and that the Iowa delegation in Congress be requested to urge immediate action upon the Senate and House.
The movement for government aid took shape in Congress in June, 1850, in bills introduced in the Senate by General Jones, granting lands for the Keokuk and Dubuque road and for a road from Davenport to the Missouri. The bill passed the Senate and was killed in the House.
A long advertised State Railroad Convention met in the House of Repre- sentatives in Iowa City, December 5, 1850. Polk county was represented by P. M. Casady, T. K. Brooks, Curtis Bates, William McKay, A. J. Stevens, Thomas McMullin, G. Burkley, Hoyt Sherman and John W. Rusk. After the usual formalities, the apportionment of delegates gave Polk seven votes in the convention. William McKay was Polk county's representative on the commit- tee on resolutions. Engineer Morgan read a report of a survey of the Daven- port and Iowa City Road. The usual resolutions and memorial to Congress were adopted.
The report of Richard P. Morgan, engineer of the Davenport and Iowa City Railroad, printed without date but bound in with other reports dated 1850, ad- dressed to Le Grand Byington and others, directors of that company, is accom- panied by a roughly drawn map showing the inevitableness of an early extension of the road to Council Bluffs. On this map Fort Des Moines is the one point named between Iowa City and Council Bluffs. The engineer evidently wrote
5 Those listed as actually present in Iowa City on Feb. 20. 1851, were: Dr. T. K. Brooks, Hon. Wm. Mckay, B. F. Allen, J. C. Jones, R. W. Sypher, T. Mitchell, C. McKay, S. Gray, B. Bryant, Charles C. Van, Dr. Wm. Dewey, L. D. Winchester, Æ. T. Reynolds, W. W. Williamson, Wm. Burbridge, L. P. Sherman, P. M. Casady, Wm. F. Ayers, and Thos. Mc- Mullin. These were given 46 votes in the convention.
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his report for publication, for it is a strong argument for the road as a con- nection between the two rivers. The argument is based upon reasoning which may be condensed into David Harum's new golden rule: "Do unto the other feller the way he'd like to do unto you-an' do it fust."
He found no other route "in any respect comparable to the one selected." He doubted not it would "have the preference over any other, as forming part of the great line which, within a short time, will be extended to Council Bluffs." The road was certain to become "part of the great National trunk railroad from Atlantic by way of Council Bluffs, the Platte valley and the South Pass to the Pacific,"-a prediction amply verified by the subsequent history of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad.
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