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 16
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On March 6 the Star announced that Dr. Dewey was making the preliminary survey of the route via Fort Des Moines to Council Bluffs, to ascertain the degree of bridging of rivers, creeks and sloughs, and to estimate the cost of the work.
A letter was later published, written by "William Dewey, civil and topo- graphical engineer," engaged to make "a preliminary survey, in which the dec- laration is made that the proposed route was "even better than reported." This writer is confident that no proposed road in the state "can be constructed with less expense."
February 23, '51, officers of the Keokuk and Fort Des Moines railroad were reported in Fort Des Moines examining routes preparatory to the actual survey.
At this time Fort Des Moines and Polk county were interested in railroad projects connecting the county seat with Lyons, with Davenport, with Keokuk and with St. Louis.
A meeting in the interest of the North Missouri road to St. Louis was held at the Fort, February 25, adding another ambitious project to the list in which the citizens of Fort Des Moines were then interesting themselves.
In July well attended and enthusiastic railroad meetings were held at rally- ing points all along the river, from Keokuk to Fort Des Moines. 'Much public spirit was manifested, and much disappointment evinced at the indifference of the lower House of Congress to the memorials from Iowa.
The retiring editor of the Journal, W. W. Williamson, is assured Aug. 15, that sufficient stock has been taken to secure the Keokuk and Fort Des Moines railroad, adding: "If the counties along the line will but move in the matter as this county has done, no doubt can be entertained as to the speedy completion of the road." He fires this parting shot at the democrats: "The road can be built by individual enterprise, and it is the only way we can reasonably hope for its completion during the reign of locofocoism in Congress."
Late in August the campaign for railroads was enlivened by a lengthy letter signed by Henry P. Scholte, and A. E. D. Bosquet, of Pella, urging the possi- bility and practicability of building the Keokuk and Fort Des Moines road with- out government aid.
On the 9th of September, the citizens of Polk county convened at the county seat to select delegates to a railroad convention to be held at Iowa City.6
The Star of September 25, indulges in the pleasures of the imagination, its "gaunt eyes see golden ages coming,"-the commencement of which is just ahead! Speaking of the railroad's entrance into Fort Des Moines, it says: "This done, and her destiny will be irrevocably fixed." One reason why the Star urges a quick construction of the road is "because it would be so convenient to bring over the Capitol !"
October 15, 1851, a railroad convention was held in Iowa City,7 Robert Lucas
6 The delegates chosen were A. Y. Hull, Jeremiah Church, Thomas Mitchell, P. M. Casady, Charles B. Darwin, Curtis Bates, J. M. Griffiths, Wesley Redhead, J. J. Sanders, Isaac Everett, Barlow Granger, Charles W. Freel and Thomas McMullin.
7 Polk county was represented by A. Y. Hull, W. Redhead, J. J. Sanders, Barlow Granger, P. M. Casady, T. Mitchell, J. Church, T. McMullin, J. A. Griffiths, C. W. Freel, H. Sherman, C. B. Darwin.
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in the chair. Hon. A. Y. Hull of Polk was on the committee on memorial to congress. The resolutions covered the usual ground, renewing the application for land grants and urging early action of Congress, including an outline of the bill desired. An additional memorial was adopted for use in Washington. A committee of five was appointed, delegated to represent the convention before Congress.8
Early in December the citizens of Fort Des Moines and vicinity met in the court house at the county seat to organize a railroad company in aid of the Iowa City, Fort Des Moines and Council Bluffs railway. R. W. Sypher presided ; Jonathan Lyon was treasurer and Hoyt Sherman secretary. A. Y. Hull, Le Grand Byington, J. E. Jewett and S. B. Shellady were made directors. Eighty- two shares of $100 each were subscribed.
At a railroad convention held in Fairfield, February 11, 1852,9 the failure of Congress to make the grants of land which had been prayed for was the sub- ject of much caustic criticism, and the prayer of two years before was changed to a demand on the Iowa delegation that it secure the grants asked for.
The convention declared that the paramount duty of the Iowa delegation to support Iowa's claims to congressional favor, "with all their skill and energy," had been "demonstrated by the arguments, and instructions of three legislative sessions, four state conventions, a score or more of district meetings and a mul- titude of petitions from the people."
It declared, further, that the land grant bill then before the Senate as re- ported by General Dodge accorded with the wishes of the people of Iowa, and demanded that the Iowa delegation in Congress sustain it "unaffected by any rival or collateral projects whatsoever."
A delegate convention was held in Iowa City on the IIth of July, 1852. Eight counties were represented. Mr. Granger of Polk, chairman of the com- mittee on resolutions, reported reaffirming the sentiment of the Fairfield conven- tion, deeply deploring the failure of the Iowa Land bill in Congress,-the failure being "doubly aggravating, and deeply humiliating, from having been accom- plished, in the main, by domestic enemies"-but nevertheless, renewing "efforts to obtain justice at the hands of Congress." The convention adjourned to meet October 6, in Iowa City. A committee of correspondence was named, Mr. Granger being the Polk county member.
December 16, 1852, in the Iowa Senate, Mr. Harris introduced a joint me- morial to Congress asking a grant of land to construct a railroad from Fort Des Moines to the southern boundary of the State of Iowa, also for a grant to con- struct a railroad from Fort Des Moines to the southern bend of the St. Peter's river in the territory of Minnesota. The memorial was referred to a commit- tee on internal improvements.
In a letter written to General Dodge by Representative, afterwards Governor and Senator, Grimes, from Iowa City, December 24, Mr. Grimes informs the General that memorials have passed the House for three roads: one from Bur- lington to the Missouri river, another from Davenport to Kanesville (Council Bluffs) and a third from Dubuque to Fort Des Moines, Rev. Dr. Salter com- menting on this letter, calls attention to the fact that in 1852 there was not a mile of railroad in Iowa. He finds in Mr. Grimes' mind the inception of Iowa railroads, declaring that "the principal object for which Mr. Grimes became a member of the legislature was to start a movement in behalf of building rail- roads, and in that he succeeded admirably."
In July, 1853, the Lyons-Iowa railroad line was pointed toward Fort Des Moines.
8 The committee appointed was James Grant, of Scott; V. P. Van Antwerp, of Lee; H. Emerson, of Dubuque; G. S. Hampton, of Johnson, and Barlow Granger, of Polk. 9 Polk county sent to this convention: Barlow Granger, Thomas Mitchell, W. T. Mar- vin, Jonathan Lyon, W. W. Williamson, B. F. Allen, A. Y. Hull, Byron Rice, R. W. Sypher, S. Y. Keera, C. C. Van, T. McMullin, T. K. Brooks and James Campbell.
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On the 21st, Chief Engineer Dey opened in Fort Des Moines an office of the Mississippi and Missouri river road, announcing that he was going to work to straighten up the last survey so that the contract might soon be ready for letting.
Without following in detail the story of renewed pressure upon Congress and renewed and extremely vigorous effort on the part of the Iowa delegation in Congress to satisfy the home demand, suffice to say the fruition of all these years of struggle for congressional aid came in the spring of 1856.
The so called Iowa Land Bill, approved by President Pierce, May 15, 1856, made an enormous grant of lands to the State of Iowa, to aid in the construction of four railroads running across the state from east to west. The grant con- sisted of alternate sections, for six sections in width on each side of the said roads. These four lines are now familiarly known as the Burlington, the Rock Island, the Northwestern and the Milwaukee. The road which was to connect the little city of Fort Des Moines with the great world east and west of her, now designated as the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, was described in the law as "from the city of Davenport, via Iowa City and Fort Des Moines to Council Bluffs."
The importance of this measure was so vital to the State of Iowa, that Gov- ernor Grimes called a special session, that immediate action might be taken. The special session convened on the second day of July, 1856, and on the 14th the Governor approved the bill accepting the grant and taking action as to carrying into execution the trust conferred upon the State. The grants conveyed alto- gether nearly four million acres of Iowa land. The lands, interests, rights, pow- ers and privileges which went with the grant for the Davenport, Fort Des Moines and Missouri river road were by this act conferred upon "the Mississippi and Missouri railroad, the company of which General G. M. Dodge was the Iowa representative.
The General Assembly at this extra session also passed a resolution, ap- proved by Governor Grimes, July 14, 1856, "instructing" our senators and repre- sentatives in Congress to procure a grant of land to aid in the construction of a railroad from Keokuk by way of Fort Des Moines to the northern line of the State, in the direction of the southern bend of the Minnesota or St. Peters River, "with a branch at Fort Des Moines to a point near the North West Corner of the State of Iowa."
By an act approved January 28, 1857, the "Keokuk, Fort Des Moines and Minnesota" railroad company was authorized and empowered to issue such an amount of construction bonds as might be necessary to construct and equip its road, built depots, station houses, water tanks, etc., the company to secure such bonds by a mortgage or deed of trust upon its property.
Thus, and in other ways, was local enterprise enabled to supplement govern- ment aid in the great movement of the Fifties in Iowa for railroad connections with the outside world, and one part of the state with another.
CHAPTER XI.
SCHOOL LIFE IN FORT DES MOINES, 1846-57.
In the fall of 1846, the little community gathered about old Fort Des Moines became ambitious for the education of its children. The pioneer teacher of the little community was Miss Davis, who taught a little school in "Barracks No. 26." In the winter of 1846-47 Lewis Whitten taught school in "Coon Row," in one of the cabins of the abandoned fort. During the following winter, A. J. Stevens taught a three-months term in the old guard house, where Third street crosses Vine. Prior to the organization of the district, Mrs. Thompson Bird taught a private school in her home on the corner of Second and Locust streets. R. L. Tidrick, on arriving at Des Moines in May, 1847, opened a private school in 'Coon Row, which was well attended; but, on receiving the appointment as postmaster, he closed the school in the spring of '48.
In 1849, a school district was organized and a young lawyer from the state of New York, named Byron Rice, was engaged as teacher. The school was opened in the old Methodist Church on Fifth street, on the ground now occupied by the Iowa Loan and Trust Company. Six weeks later, the school was removed to the old court house, a few feet south of the present court house.
Incidentally it may be mentioned that an Indian mound at this point was leveled down to supply the dirt necessary to fill the low place just south of the school. Some future excavation may unearth at this point a valuable addition to the archæology of Iowa.
The building was unfinished. There was no door leading from the entry into the school room, and after the children were corralled, rough boards were set up against the opening.1 The school room was unplastered; the window frames fitted loosely, letting in the snow. The teacher stuffed the crannies and kept two stoves filled to their utmost capacity. One of these was a box stove; the other, an old cook-stove which had been abandoned by the soldiers. With only green wood, the heating problem was not an easy one. At times the children suffered with the cold.2
There were then about sixty pupils in attendance, several of the older ones from outlying farms, and a few from other townships in the county. The school curriculum ranged all the way from primary to high school. It so happens that the only one now living in Des Moines who attended this pioneer school is Frances Cooper, now Mrs. F. M. Hubbell.
During this trying winter, the overworked teacher was given a young lady assistant. It is related that one evening while he was out walking he saw a woman scrambling up a ladder to a room in the loft of a cabin. Coming nearer, he saw it was his assistant. On reaching her room she pulled the ladder in after her. The incident illustrates the primitive life of the pioneer teacher in Des Moines in '49. Mr. Rice resigned at the end of the first school year and entered upon his career as a lawyer.
In the spring of 1851, a half-acre, on the corner of Ninth and Locust streets was bought for $Ico, as a site for a proposed new schoolhouse; but not until
1 West Des Moines Schools, by Olive McHenry, in Saturday Review, Des Moines, Dec. 19, 1896.
2 As stated by Judge Rice and quoted by Miss McHenry.
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Moinghient Elijah Sells
Member of Constitutional Convention of 1844. Secretary of State, 1856-1883
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1855 was the building erected. The new building, small but pretentious for its day, was two stories high and built of brick. It was erected under the super- vision of "Uncle" John Elliott.
J. A. Stickney succeeded Byron Rice as principal and he was given three as- sistants.
The new building was opened December 16, of that year. Mr. Stickney, afterwards a banker in Great Falls, New Hampshire, remained at the head of the school until 1857. His assistants were Misses A. M. DeWitt, Mary Whitte- more and Margaret Reese, also Asaneth H. White, whom the principal after- wards married. Miss DeWitt remained long with the school. Judge Rice, years afterwards, bore testimony to the ability and worth of the corps of teachers who took up his work.
An amusing matter of record comes down to us from the pen of Madison Young, secretary of the school board in 1850. One Charles L. Anderson was an applicant for a position as teacher, and Directors Samuel Gray and W. W. Jones, after having pronounced him "qualified in point of talent and learning," seem to have turned the matter over to Lewis Whitten, Byron Rice and the secretary. To their certificate the secretary added that all three examiners had found Anderson incompetent to teach. In his supplemental report the secretary says that Byron Rice, examiner in arithmetic, asked Anderson a number of puzzling questions, finally giving "some sums to do in complex fractions. Mr. Anderson remarked that they were of no earthly use, or practical benefit, and if scholars should bring arithmetics to his school that had complex fractions in, he should order them to Tear such Fractions out of their books." 3
In 1857, when Fort Des Moines had become an incorporated city with the word "Fort" eliminated from its name, and with the Capitol at last fully assured, there was still only one public school in the city, with only a few hundred pupils and a faculty of only five teachers. But the general policy of expansion was already pervading the system, and it remained only for the after inflow of pop- ulation to give the needed strength and direction to the movement for more and better schools.
The school system organized in 1849 evidently included East Des Moines, for among the items in the reports of officers of the district appear claims for rent and fuel for school rooms on the east side of the river. The first school in East Des Moines was held in rented rooms near where the gas house now stands. Its teacher was named Elliott. The first school erected in East Des Moines was in 1856-a small frame building near the corner of Ninth and Grand. Here Mrs. Remsburgh first taught. This lady's future experiences are related in an- other chapter.
It is thus seen that East Des Moines, with its many and capacious schools and its High and Industrial School for which the votes of Greater Des Moines recently appropriated $350,000, had even less than the West Side to offer in the way of educational facilities to the heads of families who in 1858 followed the Capitol from Iowa City to Des Moines, or were drawn to the new Capital city by its alluring attractions and bright prospects.
3 Andrews-Pioneers of Polk County, v. I, p. 121.
Vol. I-8
CHAPTER XII.
LOOKING BACKWARD ON FORT DES MOINES IN THE FIFTIES.
Calvin Thornton, writing from Pasadena, Calif., says that in the winter of '51, he became of age and got Judge Casady to enter for him the first forty acres of land he ever owned, and he felt a great deal richer then, than when, years afterwards, he sold his farm of 266 acres to the State Agricultural Society for the permanent home of the State Fair. He says he has "stood in the door of the log house on Fourth street, just south of the Kirkwood," which he used for a cabinet shop, "and shot rabbits in the patches of hazel brush around there." This "was then considered away. up out of town."
The early career of Wesley Redhead, one of the most prominent of the pioneers of the Fifties, further illustrates "the day of small things" in Des Moines. He came to Fort Des Moines in '51 and entered the employ of Col. J. M. Griffiths in his general store, at $25 a month, and "saved money on his salary." He began housekeeping in a little log house on Third street on a lot bought of "Tom" McMullin for $75. In 1853, he was appointed postmaster at a salary of $300, retaining the office until 1860. He bought a lot 22 feet front, on Second Avenue, then in the centre of trade, paying $100 for it-"the highest price paid for a lot of its size at the time. The same money would have bought nearly, or quite, a square on Walnut street at any place west of Fourth."1 On this lot he put up a frame building in which he installed the postoffice. His three mails a week "were brought over the Skunk river swamps in a jerkey." Mrs. Redhead " 'tended office" while he was away. On mail day he and his three temporary assistants, Hoyt Sherman, Byron Rice and A. J. Stevens, "made short work of the mail." From this small beginning sprang the extensive wholesale and retail book and paper house of Redhead, Norton & Company, on Locust street, which, forty years later, was one of the leading business houses in Des Moines.
For $30 Mr. Redhead bought a quarter-square on the northeast corner of Third and Locust streets, and there erected a frame dwelling which for years was one of the social centers of Des Moines.
Hon. Hiram Price, ex-Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in a letter of con- gratulation on the laying of the corner-stone of the Historical Building, dated March 8, 1899, at the age of 85, thus pictures life in Fort Des Moines in '53 :
"The small village of [Fort] Des Moines when I first visited it nearly fifty years ago and Des Moines, the Capital city of the State of Iowa today, are very different appearing places. Then Des Moines had no railroad, and many in- telligent people living there then were honestly of the opinion that a railroad through Iowa was not a possibility, much less a probability.
"I have a very distinct recollection of trying to convince the people, at a meeting held in the old courthouse in 1853, that there was a feasible project on foot, led by some eastern men to build a railroad from Davenport to Coun- cil Bluffs, by way of Des Moines. Some people at that meeting said I was a dreamer, and one man of some standing paid me the left-handed compliment of saying that I was intentionally talking around the truth, and keeping at a good
1 From an interview with Mr. Redhead published in the Register, December 12, 1886.
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CYRUS A. MOSIER Pioneer of 1848
JOHN H. GIVEN Pioneer of . 1845. First Manu- facturer in Des Moines
GUY K. - AYRES Pioneer of 1845
GEORGE SNEER
SOLOMON BALES Pioneer of Valley Township Pioneer of Saylor Township and Mayor of Des Moines
CONRAD D. REINKING Pioneer Farmer of Four-Mile Creek and Capitalist of Des Moines
CALVIN THORNTON Taken at age of seventy-eight years
D. JUSTICE
J. K. HOBAUGH Pioneer of Madison Township
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distance from it. Possibly some person or persons may now be living in Des Moines who were present at that meeting and can remember how utopian and chimerical seemed the idea of a railroad through Iowa at that time. But now what changes, time, talent, energy and enterprise have wrought !"
Hon. D. O. Finch, writing in 1896, from Washington Harbor, Wash., referred to the Fourth of July celebration in '53. Mr. Finch said he addressed the as- semblage from the steps of the old Court House, situated on the site of the Wabash depot, back of which he pictures "Uncle Hewitt, on the top of a trap door, which was the means of ingress and egress to [and from] the county jail."
He recalled the old log structures of the Fort, which even in '53 "constituted the principal residence part of the city extending north on the Des Moines and west on the Coon." He recalled "the old ferry boats on both rivers and the familiar forms of men who propelled them." He pictured Second street "from Uncle Charlie Good's log drug store which fronted the Coon, northward for two or three blocks, in which were scattered one story buildings, in which all the commercial and financial business of the city was transacted," and, on the east side of the river, "the partially tilled farm of Uncle Johnny Dean and the unoccupied lots plotted by W. A. Scott."
C. L. Lucas, in his "Recollections of Early Times in Iowa," writes of his stage ride, October 7, 1853, from Agency City up the river to Fort Des Moines.2 The weather was fine and "the autumnal smoke once more rested in beauty upon the surrounding hills." From Tool's Point (Monroe) there was no town till Fort Des Moines was reached. About five miles north of Tool's Point the party camped for the night turning their oxen out to graze. Next day they were informed that they had camped on the "site selected, six years prior to that time," for the new State Capitol, by a commission appointed for that purpose.
"Just before sundown," he writes, "we arrived near Fort Des Moines and camped on a hill overlooking that embryo city. This hill was near where the capitol building now stands. Fort Des Moines was then a small place, about all houses, both business and residence, being confined to the grounds of the old military post. The only outlook it had for making a city of importance was the prospective coming of the State Capital. All believed, and fully believed, that the capital was sure to come. But they were not alone in this belief ; the people all along the roads over which we traveled, from Ft. Madison to Fort Des Moines, believed, conceded and most of them advocated the same thing."
Hon. Peter A. Dey, of Iowa City, who, with General Dodge and William W. Walker, did much to develop Iowa by uniting the Mississippi and Missouri with railroad ties, was in the spring of 1853 engaged in surveying the Missis- sippi and Missouri Railroad from Davenport and Fort Des Moines to Council Bluffs. His principal assistant was Grenville M. Dodge, afterwards a major general of the Civil War, and chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railway. Fort Des Moines then had a population of about 650, or half that of Iowa City, the State Capital. He reports3 that the business houses in both places were mainly shanties placarded with signs in large letters "Land Warrants." "The land offices for a large part of the State were located in these towns, the general government still owning a majority of the lands within the State." From the highest elevation between the rivers, east of Des Moines, he "looked over a vast extent of prairie and saw nothing to indicate that the foot of man had ever pressed the ground."
The power of association is illustrated in the early career of Gen. J. A. Williamson. Writing the semi-centennial committee, from New York, July 4, 1876, he said he first visited Des Moines when a boy, in 1848, when there were but few if any buildings save the log cabins which the government had built for barracks and quartermaster's stores. He was so pleased with the town and
2 Annals of Iowa, v. 6, p. 381.
3 Annals of Iowa, v. 7, p. 81.
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country round it that he resolved to make it his home. This he did in 1855. The point the author has elsewhere attempted to make, as to the influence of pioneers upon a city to its latest day, is sustained by the General's .words. He says: "Looking back to that time I assemble and group in my mind a large number of young men who had come to Fort Des Moines to start in busi- ness life. But few of them had any capital other than brains and determination to succeed. All were filled with hope and high aspiration for the good and for the success and prosperity of the city so lately placed on the map of the Territory."
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