USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
"During these early years of trade there was a great deal of bartering being done. The people were most all young and came West to start into just what seemed to open up. There hands and head were relied upon more than money.
"Our newspaper played an active part in the development of our city and county, the same then as now in the twentieth century. William Haddock was the first one who started the printing press in Waterloo. Hartman & Ingersoll, in 1858, came down from Cedar Falls and bought the Haddock printing plant. Later William 11. Hartman bought out the Ingersoll interest. Those early years were hard on newspaper proprietors as well as all business pursuits. Hartman was one of the boys, with many others, who tried his hand at 'batching' during those early days. As far as I can remember the cooperative batching hotels came out financially all right; batching proved to be the successful wedge to tide over.
"W. H. Hartman was a careful financier, the Raymond Brothers and Mr. Hartman used to run accounts a year before settling. We drew on him for print- ing matter and advertising and he drew orders on us to pay his help and other things. January was the month for settling and Mr. Hartman invariably knew just how the accounts would square up. I remember in one of our settlements, illustrative of his honesty, after squaring our accounts, everything being satis- factory, the next day he came in and said, 'Raymond, I have you credited with an order I gave on you and you paid it. I did not find it charged to me in your bill rendered.' We looked the matter up and found the order, but it had not been
129
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
charged up on our books to his account. I am satisfied in my own mind, from my own experience and what Mr. Hartman has told me in passing through the early financial pressure of the New West, that the careful way in which Mr. Hartman conducted his business, keeping it well in hand and knowing just how matters would square up, being an inveterate worker early and late, coupled with principles of honesty and integrity, laid the foundation that has carried the Waterloo Courier up to its present high standing in the city and county.
"In these days of yore it might be interesting to know the price of goods and produce. By digging out my old books I find in the years 1857 to 1860 prices ran quite steady. Salt, per barrel, $5.35; prairie hay, $2.50 to $3.00; Judge Bagg, two barrels apples, $12.00; oysters, 75 cents a can; Rio coffee, 15 and 25 cents ; Java, 25 cents ; eggs, 5 and 6 cents a dozen ; paid for eggs, 3 and 4 cents a dozen ; potatoes, 15 and 17 cents a bushel; butter retailed at 9 and 10 cents a pound, paid 6 and 9 cents for it; dressed pork, $1.75 a hundred ; dressed turkeys, 7 cents ; chickens, dressed, 5 cents ; corn, basket, 75 cents ; 2-bushel grain bags, 30 cents ; A sugar 7 pounds for $1.00, C sugar 8 pounds, B sugar nine pounds ; tea, 50 cents to $1.00 a pound; home-made cheese, 8 and 10 cents a pound; onions, 25 and 30 cents a bushel .. Winter of 1860, wheat was bought for 43 to 65 cents a bushel. Cedar Rapids was the outlet, hauling it down with teams and wagons. My board was $2.00 a week at the Sherman Hotel and Morris Case Boarding House and other places,
"At the breaking out of the Civil war all goods began to advance. The pin- nacle was reached in the years 1864-65. My books show quite a different line of prices. Young Hyson and Gunpowder teas sold at $1.25 to $2.40 a pound. The light C sugar, 3 pounds for $1.00; light brown 37/2 pounds, a darker brown 41/2 pounds, for $1.00; kerosene oil, $1.00 per gallon; apples, $6.75 and $7.50 per barrel, retailed half bushel $1.50, per peck 80 cents. Green coffee, 45 and 55 cents a pound; Old Government Java coffee, 75 cents per pound; lard, 25 cents a pound; 2-bushel cotton grain sacks, Stark Mills, $1.50 each; hemp sacks, $1.25 each ; cheese, 30 to 35 cents a pound; salt by the barrel, $4.50; fresh oysters in cans, 80 cents to $1.25 ; no bulk oysters in those days came west. Syrups, $1.00, $1.25, $1.80 a gallon; cotton clothes lines, $1.20 a pound; water lime cement, $4.75 and $5.00 per barrel; potash, 35 cents a can; Procter & Gamble's German soap, 22 cents a bar, or 5 bars for $1.00.
* * *
"In 1862 my brothers. I. M. and A. S., now living at Lincoln, Nebraska, were brought West and interested with the Raymond Brothers. From this union came the branch stores at Waverly, Charles City and in later years Albert Lea, known far and wide as the Raymond Brothers Stores.
"In the fall of 1865 we engaged George Crittenden to go East to buy our winter stock of green and dried apples. The cost of the apples, freight and expenses, was $6,510.50. Our principal competitor in the grocery business in 1860-61 was Capt. Henry D. Williams. He made it warm for us, but he loved his country more than his grocery business, so enlisted, serving his country well and returning with honors well won.
"There was a ferry boat line established above the dam on Second Street where the ice houses now stand. Seth Lake and Nathan Bullock were the owners of it. It was run on a rope cable. One time when I was getting ready Vol. I- 9
130
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
for a trip to Dubuque and started right out after the noon-hour the water was high and a strong, deep current. Everything went nicely until reaching about half-way across, when the cable broke and we began to go down stream. There was one woman and a man besides myself and team. Mr. Bullock was the pilot. AAll was commotion on deck. Seeing the situation I began unhitching my team from the wagon, to free them so that they could swim. The woman was crying and yelling for help. Bullock was tending to the boat and all was ready for the lunge over the dam, which it was approaching on an angle, but as it neared the dam it straightened around end first. I stepped up to the horses' heads to drop the tongue and was there when the boat plunged over. It went with hardly a quiver, all was safe. The woman jumped up and clasped her hands and sang out, 'Praise the Lord we are safe.' There was plenty of help, and skiffs and ropes, to pull us up to a landing place between Fifth and Sixth streets. I made no trip to Dubuque, but next day started for Iowa City.
"It may be of interest to recall some of the names of the men that were active in the days of yore, laying the foundations for the developing on lines that have made the beautiful City of Waterloo a city famous through the Great West for its thriftiness, clean streets, cement walks, and energetic citizens, full of push and perseverance and the largest manufacturing city in the great State of Iowa. Charles Mullan, G. W. Hanna, Anthony Baker and Hallock were owners of the city plat in part. Dr. I. M. Harper; Nelson Ayres, merchant; H. B. Allen, attorney ; A. C. Couch, merchant ; S. Bagg, attorney ; J. H. Leavitt, banker ; William Snowden, druggist; W. W. Forry, druggist; E. S. Phelps, mer- chant ; W. H. Curtiss, attorney ; O. Ellsworth, furniture dealer; T. Elwell, mer- chant; John Elwell, Morris Case, meat market: I. B. and F. Goss, merchants; William Haddock, first editor; J. P. Hosford, Edmund Miller, real estate; J. C. Hubbard, merchant and postmaster; Hartman and Ingersoll, proprietors of Courier ; R. T. Hitt, manufacturer of wagons and buggies ; P. J. Siberling and Maverick, hardware; G. W. Miller, surveyor and real estate; Doctor Peabody. Parmenter and Davis, drugs and pork packers ; R. Russell, banker; G. M. Tinker, contractor and builder of courthouse on Eleventh Street, east side, and the builder of the house that J. E. Sedgwick lives in at the corner of South and West Third Streets; H. Sherman, proprietor Sherman House, first hotel in the city ; J. B. Severance, Nathan Bullock, contractors ; Fred Washburn had a saw- mill on Washburn's Pond; Judge Randall, H. D. Williams, Bee Hive Grocery ; George Ordway, attorney, and others.
"In those days of yore the pioneers passed through many trying and strug- gling times. The cold, frigid winter weather and deep snows chills one to think of them now. The thermometer occasionally registered 35° to 40° below zero. Most of the houses were poorly built, open and cold. It was not uncommon to hear people say, 'I crawled out from under a snow bank.' or '] dug through a bank of snow to get from the bed to the stove to start the morning fire.'
"The winter of 1859 was death to stock. Many head frozen to death could be seen in most every barnyard.
"One of the cold winters I was pallbearer at a funeral. The cold weather had been severe, the snow was deep and no particular roads. It was impossible to get to the cemetery, so the coffin was placed in a snow bank, remaining until spring.
"In the years of the 'Gos, sometimes the ice harvest would be all up by January
131
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Ist, fourteen and fifteen inches thick. One year after starting work was sus- pended on account of the cold and storms. When beginning again it was thirty and thirty-two inches thick. Our winters surely have changed.
"Many of the home productions fell far behind towards paying for what had to be had that was shipped and teamed into this country. Much hardship under trying conditions and discouragements had to be endured. Many ran for a season, became discouraged, wrote home for money and returned East. Most all were young people coming West, chancing it to work up. Those who had the courage and were tenacious enough to stand firm and endure the roughening process of the woolly West, came through all right. In looking through my first ledger. 1857-9, I find that nearly every account had exchanged dealing orders on other people. Little money was used in the early stages of Waterloo.
"When one stops to think of the condition of things in 1855 and the state of the present times, the mind can hardly grasp the great progress, developments, inventions, etc., which have taken place in the intervening years."
JOIN TENNANT
John Tennant was one of the first settlers of Fox Township, buying eighty acres of land in that township in 1857. He resided on the same tract for about forty years, when he moved to Independence.
Mr. Tennant has written the following reminiscences :
"I came to Iowa in 1857 and in the same year bought eighty acres of land in Fox Township, which I began at once to break up. The breaking was done with oxen, as they were used more than horses in the early days, being better to stand the hard work and the hardships of pioneering.
"Two years later I built a house of logs, with all the modern improvements for that day. It had two rooms, one downstairs and one above. There was one twelve-light window in each, and one door in the lower room.
"We were frequently visited by Indians who camped along the Cedar River. They came to hunt, also to beg from the settlers. Many times we gave them of our scanty store, but we did not live on cake, pie and other desserts in those days. Pork, beans and corn bread in large part constituted our daily rations. Our fruits were wild plums, grapes and cherries.
"Foxes and wolves were common neighbors then and we frequently had to chase them from our barn and chicken yards, to prevent them from carrying off our young flocks and herds, which were small in numbers. As time passed on I remember a little incident which happened one Sunday morning, as I was about to go out to do the chores. I heard a noise among the chickens. On hurrying to the spot I saw a wolf making his escape with the only rooster on the place. I soon mounted a horse and was on his trail, overtaking him a half mile away. As I approached he dropped the rooster and fled. I picked up the fowl, brought it home and threw it down in the barnyard, where he flopped his wings and crowed lustily.
"Prairie chickens were very plentiful in the early days and were trapped by the hundreds. They were not rejected from our own tables, the breasts being delicious. when fried.
132
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
"We had no high schools then, but enjoyed going to school in our little log school houses, which were equipped with writing desks pinned to the walls, with long benches in front of them. There were no railroads in 1857 nearer than Dyersville, which was a few miles west of Dubuque, and where Jesup stands today there was but one business house, conducted by William Marshall. But newcomers kept flocking in, building a little house here and there. They early began to set out trees, which afforded protection against the wind which blew a gale in the .win- ter months. Although the winters were long and cold, with deep snow, and neighbors were far apart, these conditions did not prevent the settlers from bundling up and going in sleds to visit each other. The whole family would go visiting in the forenoon. stay to dinner and most of the afternoon. When the sun dropped low they would return home to do their chores. These visits were greatly enjoyed and everyone had a royal time.
"There was no so-called high-toned society then, but all were on a common level: All endured the same hardships and rejoiced in the same victories which came in subjugating a wild country. The spirit of comradeship and helpfulness was widespread among the pioneers. Each was ready to do a kind act for the other. Farmers exchanged work and neighboring gatherings were places where good fellowship held sway and we believe that people enjoyed life better in their poverty then than in their riches now. The memory of those days is precious to us and it is a delight to permit the mind to wander back over the years and recall the pleasures and sociability and cooperative helpfulness of those who came to the new country and did their part in making Iowa what it is today."
A PEEP BACK THROUGH THE VISTA OF YEARS
The following are the reminiscences of Mrs. George Ordway, who came to Waterloo in June, 1854:
"Someone has said, 'Reminiscences of the old who see the past in the fluttering distance of time may sometimes be distrusted,' but we will try to recall the facts and leave the coloring to others. The life of the pioneer is so largely the work of faith, labor of love and patience, of hope that the story of it on paper seems cold and dull.
"The first thing that comes to my mind is the picture of a young couple, with a two-months old baby girl, in an old-fashioned covered wagon, driving into Water- loo in June, 1854. It now seems like a dream, but it is a fact that for nearly thirty years they gave themselves as best they knew to the upbuilding of the place.
"Mr. Ordway had become possessed of the idea that his work of publishing a paper in Illinois, having to do much of the labor himself, was injuring his health, so he resolved to 'go West' and on reaching Waterloo decided that was the place to locate. Freeport. Illinois, had been the home of each of us from child- hood. We left there on June 5th. I came to Warren, Illinois, the terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad, by rail. The teams were waiting there; one wagon con- veying our household effects was in charge of an uncle of Mr. Ordway, Rufus Ordway, and the other we occupied, the little willow wagon being close by the spring seat and the bedding behind forming a convenient couch where one could rest. It was a long, tedious trip, taking us almost as many days then as hours now. We were ten days on the road, stopping over Sabbath. We were very happy when
133
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
on the 15th we came in sight of the beautiful Cedar, that has never lost its charm.
"We stopped at the Sherman House and found it full of homeseekers. We were one of four young couples to lodge in the only spare room. A heavy rain came up in the night ; some from former experience were prepared with umbrellas and could stay in bed, but we, with the baby, had to go out to the front room until the storm was over. Then we returned, to make the best we could of our wet bed.
.
"In a few days we found an unoccupied log cabin about a block from the hotel, in Commercial Street. It had been built for a store with windows only on each side of the door. There was no floor, but as soon as boards enough for a chair had been laid, also for the baby-wagon, we moved in. We had two memorable experiences there. One night we had some gold, for entering land, in a drawer in the bureau at the foot of the bed. The window was open from the bottom and the door fastened by a wooden button. I saw a man reach in the window and unbutton the door. I tried very quietly to awaken Mr. Ordway; he finally roused and screamed, thinking it was the maid, whom we had to work and who slept on the floor above. When I explained matters the man was out and although Mr. Ordway followed him, he could not catch him.
"Then the Indian scare occurred. We were awakened by a man running his horse by, and screaming, 'The Indians are coming.' There had been reports of trouble further north and it was easy to believe that they were coming. Every man prepared and families joined in one house to protect themselves. The founda- tion of the fright was a wedding and a charivari.
"We remained but a month or two in that cabin. The money the man did not get was used in entering the land where a nursery was planted, Mr. Ordway mak- ing the first wagon track out on West Park Avenue to what has been recently known as the Reber Farm, now Kingbard Hill. We bought a cabin, near the river, which had two rooms, the smaller one having two beds, and the loft sup- plied room for as many more as were needed-on the floor.
"The term living room so generally in use now was unheard of then, but our one room was truly a 'living room,' with bookcase, tables, chairs. We received company, ate and lived there. One door gave the only entrance and that by a porch where the cook stove stood and where all work connected with it was done.
"During the summer, several families had come to the town and we at one time entertained nine over night.
"The Presbyterian Church was organized in August, 1854, and at that time and for many years, we kept a 'prophet's chamber' for all passing ministers. Rev. Nelson Robinson was the first Presbyterian minister and he was assisted at the organization by Rev. James Phillips.
"In October C. P. Hunt came with his bride, Mr. Ordway's father and my father coming with them. We returned to Illinois with the fathers, the Hunts oc- cupying our cabin while they built a frame house on the hill, where they lived for many years and where they died.
"We returned in the spring and it was a busy summer, as grafts for setting a nursery had been prepared during the winter and were now to be set and tended. If it is true that he is a benefactor of his race who makes a spear of grass grow where there was none, the planting of this first nursery with these cuttings brought from Illinois should entitle George Ordway and D. W. Foote to be considered
134
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
benefactors, as many, if not most, of the apple orchards of Black Hawk County came from this beginning.
"In 1860 we built out at the nursery and made our home there for some years ; after having built, in 1856, what was really our first home where the Emmons Johnson home now stands.
"The little group of thirty log cabins became by 1856 a village of some im- portance and was settled upon as the county scat. Desirable people had located and everything seemed most promising.
"The first Presbyterian Church was located on the corner of Jefferson Street and West Park Avenue. It was dedicated with most pleasant exercises in strong faith and earnest purpose in November, 1856. The financial panic soon came, a severe blow to all enterprises, especially the little band of church workers that had done their utmost, and the church had to be sold.
"There was little progress in the growth of the town but after a time other churches were built, select or private schools opened : aid or sewing societies, ladies' prayer meetings, with many social visits, bound the early settlers by en- (hiring ties of friendship. The names of those most active at this time are not often seen now except on marble slabs in the cemetery, and cherished in the hearts of their families and close friends.
"The war affected our little town as it did the whole country, sadly depleting its numbers and calling out the latent energy of all. I have vivid recollections of driving up the Black Hawk for rags for the women to prepare for use among the soldiers.
"It has been said, 'The life of every great man or enterprise is more or less closely interwoven and affected by their first friends.' It is a cause for pride on the part of those now reaping the benefits of those early days in Waterloo that many choice people were among those early settlers and laid good foundations.
"My memories cover such a long period that it is impossible to refer to many of the pleasant and sad experiences that come to me.
"We returned to town after a time and, after serving as county school super- intendent, Mr. Ordway again settled to his original calling of lawyer.
"The home we occupied longest of any was on the corner of Jefferson and West Park Avenue. The memory of this home is most pleasant : we had buried two children from the home on the hill, but no sad experience came to us in this last house.
"The First Presbyterian Church had built again on the corner of Fourth and Jefferson streets and being so near and much interested. it was ours to be the gen- esis of many things.
"Our residence in Waterloo ended in 1882, when on account of the severe climate we went to Kansas, but frequent visits have kept us in touch with all its interests and growth and we have noted it all with pride.
"The many new and large churches, the two fine libraries replacing the one room in the opera house, and the splendid homes and finished streets all testify of the wonderful prosperity that has come to the place. All that pertains to its welfare is of great interest to me and its developments but show it to have been a wise selection for our home and the cause of satisfaction that we had some share in its early days for the upbuilding in all that was for its highest good."
135
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
EARLY INDIAN FEAST IN UNION TOWNSHIP
The following reminiscences were written by C. A. Rownd, of Cedar Falls : "When the earliest settlers came to Black Hawk County, they found the north- western part, consisting of what is now Union Township and a part of Washington Township, a favored resort of the Indians. No other section of the country sup- plied such attractions that suited the taste of the adventurer or Indian as this particular locality. The three rivers, the Cedar, the West Fork and the Shell Rock, coming together at this point, with the Beaver Creek a short distance below. together with the lakes, ponds and marshes and groves that were located all over Union Township, made it an ideal breeding place for all kinds of wild game suited to this climate. Deer, wild turkey, and occasionally bear inhabited this timber. while the lakes, ponds and marshes supplied the hunter with an abundance of aquatic fowl. There being no dams on the river, the streams were well stocked with fish. The Indians, long before the advent of the white settlers, made yearly pilgrimages to this section on account of its attractions.
"Mr. James Newell, the earliest settler in that section, was a great favorite with the Indians, being of large stature, a man of considerable ability, possessed naturally with many winning ways, always treating the Indians kindly and joining with them in their hunting and sports. They soon not only recognized him as a friend, but went to him for counsel and advice. If there was any difference of opinion among them, which often happened, Mr. Newell was selected to settle the dispute. His decision was final and always seemed to be satisfactory. During their annual gatherings, sports and feasts, Newell invariably joined them and was always a welcome visitor.
"Isaac Barrick, another settler who built his cabin where the Town of Janes- ville now stands, accompanied his friend Newell to one of the these feasts, a day looked forward to by the Indians as the crowning event of the year. Barrick noticed that one section of the spread seemed to get more abundant supplies than the others, but supposed it was prepared for the chief, but soon learned that it was intended for himself and Newell. Barrick hesitated, making all sorts of excuses, fearing that it was not clean, but after being assured by Newell that it was all right, who said he had eaten with them a great number of times and lived through it and besides the Indians would take it as an insult, Barrick reluctantly consented to join in the feast. There were two dishes set before them which Barrick thought to be very good. These were the meat and the hominy. Barrick said: "I tell you, Newell, these squaws can give our white women some ideas about preparing these two dishes.' The hominy was what was known as lye hominy, prepared the same as we prepare it except after it had boiled a sufficient time in strong lye made from wood ashes, to loosen the hulls, the squaws waded out into the water where there was an unlimited supply and washed it until all of the lye was removed.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.