USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 36
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Another interesting thing of the early history of La Porte is the old bell, the one which was used in the hotel, later in the Hotel Terry. That bell was moulded in Mansfield, Ohio, and shipped to Davenport in the fall of 1857. I ordered it through an old-time huckster peddler, O. Bennett by name. The bell, including freight. cost $14. The evening that the bell arrived in La Porte is one that I cannot forget. Bennett drove into town with his huckster wagon and the bell. It was not long before the boys had the bell mounted on the wagon so that it could be swung and then the noise commenced. At that time the Indians were camping on Big Creek, just below where the railroad bridge now crosses, and when that bell began to ring you should have seen those natives come out of the forest. Big Injuns, little Injuns, squaws and all ; they just stood there and looked at the bell in sort of frightened condition. Every once in a while during the night the boys rang the bell and finally old John Esquamaw came up and daintily examined it. This old bell called the soldiers to their dinner during the Rebellion.
The first Fourth of July celebration La Porte ever had was in 1856. Early on the morning of the Fourth a number of the old-time loafers that used to make Doc Wasson's store their headquarters commenced to gather in. As soon as a quorum arrived the first thing on the docket was to get up a celebration in honor of the day. A committee of arrangements was appointed and proceeded to work by clearing a spot of ground about in front of where the Progress-Review is now published. Then they erected a suitable table, which was made by driving four little crotches in the ground and placing pieces of timber cross ways in the crotches and upon this an elm plank. They next secured a large log and a two- inch auger and bored the log full of holes. These holes were partially filled with powder and then with sand and tamped; a hole was made in this with a darning needle and primed with powder, so that the log would make as much noise as a cannon. By 10 o'clock we had things pretty well arranged. Then we appointed a committee to supply our table with a few luxuries. The committee went into the back door of Doc's department store, took a gallon jug and filled it with whiskey out of a barrel which Doc had ordered for "medicinal" purposes. They brought along the tincup which used to sit on top of the barrel. You should have seen the dexterity with which some of the good settlers of the town assembled around the table. Toasts were given, the tincup was filled from the little brown jug and passed around until the good people felt in the proper condition for celebrating the glorious Fourth. We had no flag, but we felt patriotic just the same. We boomed our magazine and it was not long before we had our log blown to pieces. Then we tackled a big oak tree which stood on the bank
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of the creek. We filled it with holes and charged it with powder. After the jug was replenished we formed a circle and sang the Star Spangled Ban- ner and gave three rousing cheers for the flag, then we ordered out the artillery. We shook the old oak tree from butt to top and kept on boring and shooting until we exhausted our powder. The day was awfully warm and we were awfully dry, so we made a motion to visit the commissary department and get added refreshments. So another trip was made to the department store. When the day was nearly gone we proposed to wind up with a game of old sledge. So we all got around the elm board and played until the shadows of evening fell over the land. But with the evening we had no fireworks with which to illuminate, so it was suggested that we make another visit to the department store and lay in a fresh supply of crackers and spirits fermenti, which we did. and after partaking bountifully thereof. we gathered in a circle and sang Auld Lang Syne.
At this time there was a host of campers on both sides of the creek just below where the railroad bridge now stands. I guess there must have been at least thirty covered wagons there. There was plenty of good grass, water, wood and shade trees, so that it made a first class place to camp. So after singing our song we bethought ourselves of the weary pilgrims over life's desert plains and formed in line for a visit to the emigration camp. When we arrived it was getting dark. the campers had their chores all done and had formed in groups around their camp fires, each in their own class, so that they might spend the evening as they suited. One group I noticed was engaged in praying and singing religious hymns ; a little farther on another group was seated around their camp fire play- ing cards and still farther on in the amphitheater was the big crowd; they had a couple of violins going and were dancing and having a big time. Summing the whole thing up in my mind I thought it was better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of mirth, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. After visiting at the camp for some time we returned to the department store, taking along our little brown jug and dipper. After taking a good smoke we all shook hands with Doc Wasson and retired to our homes. This is a truthful account of La Porte's first Fourth of July celebration.
The winter of 1855 was a hard winter; potatoes would be frozen hard and rattle like walnuts in the sack; hundreds of prairie chickens froze to death, and the wolves used to come in gangs, surrounding the house and making the most awful howl you ever heard.
At that time we had two towns laid out here. A man by the name of Blythe or Dees came here from Ottawa, Illinois, and laid out a town on the west side of Big Creek and called it Ottawa. Doctor Wasson, from La Porte, Indiana, located on the east side of the creek and laid out a town which he called La Porte, in honor of his old home. It was not long before we found out that there was another La Porte in Clark County and this mixed the mails up some, so Doctor Wasson added City to the name to distinguish it. However, it was not long before a great strife arose between our town and Ottawa across the creek. A man named Lewis had bought the latter town and began putting up permanent buildings of brick and stone. He built a large brick hotel and a stone barn, a store house, sawmill, and grist mill; this gave lots of work to idle hands and at that time the place was on a boom. Mr. Turner was a strong advocate and
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adherent of James Buchanan and through this influence got our postoffice over in Ottawa. This hurt the few settlers in La Porte-that was covered with hazel brush at the time and looked pretty ragged. But he didn't keep the postoffice long in Ottawa. There was another man in the brush who had voted for Buchanan and he got up a petition, having but a few signers, and it was not long before the postoffice was relocated on the east side of Big Creek, with your humble servant as postmaster. And then it was proposed we throw away the names of the old townsites and consolidate the two towns in one incorporation and under one name, and that the people should vote upon this question and also upon a name for this town. A date for the election was set and many names were suggested. When the vote was counted it was found that the name Kenebeck had the majority of votes. To effect the change it was necessary that the Legislature take action upon it. We run the town for a while under the new name, but our postoffice address remained unchanged. Then we found out that the La Porte in Clark County was only a little place and the Legislature set the name aside and after that our mail came all right whether the City was added or not. The town still retains this name given by Doctor Wasson.
The first hotel was built here on the west side of Big Creek, the place being called Ottawa at that time, by a man named Dees, from Ottawa, Illinois, who located here about the same time that Doctor Wasson did. The hotel was built of logs and was really two log houses made into one, with a twelve foot space in the middle that made a good dining room. The building was forty-four feet long, sixteen feet wide and nearly a story and a half high. The first floor con- sisted of an office, dining room and parlor. Part of the office was used for a cook room and a kitchen and the parlor had two beds and a lounge in it. Over- head poles were used for joists, hewed of a thickness and covered with rough boards; the floors were laid out of broad clapboards of native lumber. The upstairs was all one room, the floor of which was matted over with a heavy coating of slough grass-Doctor Smith, the Ottawa doctor, used to call this the school section-access to it was had by a ladder in one corner of the office and at the landing the roof was so low that you had to bend considerable or else bump your head. Previous to the opening of the hotel, old Mr. Dees took sick and died, leaving his widow and two sons, William and John, to run the hotel. The first thing they did was to get a beautiful hotel sign painted. William Dees was a great violinist ; he could play Old Dan Tucker and Old Zeb Coon in pretty good shape. To sit in his old split bottom chair, drawing old-fashioned melodies out of his fiddle, seemed to be about the height of his enterprise. His brother, John, was more of a hand to drive oxen and break prairie and haul logs; he did a good deal of that kind of work, leaving William to act as landlord of the Ottawa Hotel.
One evening as I stood outside of the hotel I noticed the Northwestern Stage Coach crossing the ford below where the railroad bridge now is and making for the Ottawa. Wesley Glass, the stage driver, pulled up with a swing in front of the hotel and after depositing his passengers at the office door sought shelter for his teams. The passengers were six in number and were what we called in those days land sharks. There was a thunderstorm coming on and soon it began to grow very dark; the wind grew boisterous and things looked bad in general. The stage driver, who had been outside taking in the situation, came in and said he
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was afraid to start for Waterloo that night as there was no permanent road and they might get lost in the dark or meet with some accident in the storm. So they made up their minds to stop at the Ottawa Hotel over night and get an carly start in the morning.
The next thing was supper and old lady Dees busied herself in getting it ready. She got out her little dough tray which looked very much like a sap trough and putting flour and water in it soon had a pan of biscuits ready. I could not help but notice the old lady and what pride she seemed to take in her work. She would twist off a piece of dough and tucking it in on the sides and patting it on the top would form it into a biscuit. Then she got out her skillet and filled it with sliced meat, brewed the tea and supper was ready. When the guests were all seated hot biscuits, fried meat, hot gravy and syrup constituted the meal. After the meal was over they formed themselves into a group and talked about the West and what a grand country it was going to be. Then the landlord was called in with a request to play his fiddle and entertain the guests with music, which he was always willing to do. Producing his fiddle he says, "Gentlemen, what will you have?" He was called upon for his favorite, so he struck up Old Dan Tucker. Then he picked up a candle and started to show his guests to their rooms. One after another they climbed the ladder and you should hear the plug hats crash as they struck the roof. Having all landed he pointed to the floor and told them to select places to suit themselves.
By this time the stage driver and 1, who had been stacked up against the wall, taking in the manner in which a frontier hotel was run, had become pretty well acquainted. I was beginning to get interested in the hotel business at that time and the stage driver gave me some pretty good pointers. While we sat there talking the racket commenced upstairs. It seems the guests were not resting easy on their bed of slough hay and had commenced to devil each other in a good- natured manner. First we would hear one say, "Turn over there, won't you," and then another would yell for more hay. Finally, they got to scuffling and romping and throwing each other around until they got tired and all descended Jacob's Ladder to the office. They routed up the landlord and called for break- fast and told the driver to get his coach ready for an early start. Pretty soon the coffee pot was singing, more biscuits were made, a few slices of meat fried, and breakfast was served. Then the driver came in and announced that he was ready to start, saying that it would not be long before daybreak and that he thought he could make it all right.
Breakfast over they called for the landlord and asked for their bill. William hemmed and hawed and paused, and then looking at the six plug-hatted gentle- men says, "You had supper, lodging and breakfast and your bill is $1.50 cach." They lined up and paid without a murmur. I thought that was making money pretty fast.
The next day an elderly gentleman drove up to the Ottawa House and wanted his horse fed and dinner for himself. William had no barn, so he tied the horse to a post and threw some corn into a box where the horse could get it. After the old gentleman had got his dinner he asked for his horse and his bill. William said the charges were 75 cents and the old man handed him a gold dollar. William could not make the change, but remembering that he had hitched up the horse he
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charged him 25 cents for that and that just made even money. That is the way a hotel in this section at that time was run.
The fish seine in Big Creek was under the supervision of Thaliner Sprague, Peter Van Schoick, Warren Richardson and I. In the fall of 1856 we made a deal with an old Pennsylvanian residing in Waterloo for the use of his seine. He made it to span the Cedar River and it had a twelve foot slack in the net to fish in deep water. It was four times bigger than we needed in Big Creek, but it did its work just the same. We had hundreds of pounds of fish and of great variety. Lots of pickerel would weigh thirty pounds apiece, wall-eyed pike, salmon, buffalo, catfish and other varieties. We selected all of the best fish and set the rest at liberty. Just that one haul supplied the whole town and country for miles around. Big Creek became noted for its good fishing and lots of fisher- men from Vinton, Shellsburg and other points would come here and camp, dragging the fish out on the sand bars, taking such as suited them and leaving the rest to perish on the banks.
Many traveling men and others have asked me how a certain locality came to be known as Six Mile Grove. The reason it was called this was not, as many suppose, because it was six miles from La Porte, but because it was considered six miles around the grove. This name was given it by the early settlers to distinguish it from other groves, as there were many in that locality. There were Brush Grove, Carlisle Grove, Hickory Grove and School Section Grove.
John Gannon came here in the spring of 1857 and Matthias Frost was here a year before. They located on farms west of La Porte. In later years they retired from their farms and lived in the town. In the fall of 1856 Jacob Betts landed in La Porte. He bought some land adjoining William Cooper, where he resided for many years, or until he moved to his land nearer town. He was a mason by occupation. Frank B. Woodman will be remembered by most of our early settlers. He came here in the summer of 1856. He was a skillful hunter and trapper and was a great fellow for camping out. He was a leader in all amusements and home talent entertainments. Another old timer was James Gannon, a brother of John Gannon. He came here with an old settler by the name of Wallace J. Hurd. In the spring of 1857 the two Gannons and Hurd built a stone barn across the creek in Ottawa. When it was finished Frank Woodman gave a comedy entertainment in it to a packed house. Later James Gannon drove the stage from La Porte to Cedar Falls. After the railroad was finished through he worked as a section hand, later becoming boss. Another old settler of 1856 and 1857 was a man named William Wilson. He was a Scotchman and by profession a blacksmith. He liked La Porte and settled here, having John Rolston, a carpenter, build his house where the First National Bank now stands. The house was constructed of native lumber. I must not forget to mention the names of Uncle Jacob Woodley and John Nichols, early pioneers. They endured the pioneer life through many years. Early in the existence of La Porte a man named George Wilson entered this portion of section 25-87-II and Doc Wasson and Salmon B. Chapin made a deal with him for the land on the west side of Big Creek, including the water power, and they had everything ready to start operations when Wilson bolted the contract and sold to Lewis Turner of Cedar Rapids.
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Among the early settlers whom I want to mention were the Gardner boys. First came Gilson, who landed in these parts in the summer of 1855. On the 18th of June of that year he entered his land on the banks of Miller's Creek in Eagle Township and then started back to his Ohio home to pack his goods and get his family ready for the trip through the great West. A few years after Gilson came his two brothers, Riley and Amile, and their families, bought farms adjoining Gilson and there found prosperity.
Another old timer was David Ackley. He used to be one of the old time stage coach drivers and one of the best on the road. He deserves special mention for the manner in which he treated his passengers and cared for his horses. I never will forget the hardships of the drivers in those days and how I pitied the poor horses. Our roads were in desperate shape and there were but few bridges. The old pioneer road was not confined to a permanent location, but belonged to the wild and open prairie. The prairie was covered with sloughs and water crosses and many of them you would think had no bottom. I think I am safe in saying that in those days the road from La Porte to Vinton was the worst on the whole stage route-there were Rock Creek, Spring Creek. Pratt Creek, Apple Creek and Whiskey Creek, all bad water crosses, but the latter was the worst on account of deep holes. John Shaffer, an early settler, gave it the name of Whiskey Creek. While riding home one night, with a jug of whiskey tied to his saddle horn, and a thunder storm brewing, his horse stepped in a hole while fording this creek and was drowned. Shaffer lost both horse and whiskey, and later said he didn't give a d- about the mare if he could only find the jug. This incident gave the creek its name.
In the early days in the hotel and, in fact, more or less through all my career as a landlord, one of the cussedest things I had to deal with was the "bar-room loafers," as I called them, or office loungers. In the pioneer days I think they were a little worse than at any other time. They would come into the office and occupy all the chairs while the man who was a guest of the hotel and paid his bills would have to stand around until I would go to some other part of the hotel and bring him a chair. These loafers would buy their cigars at some other place and come to the hotel to smoke and spit and it did not make much differ- ence to them whether they hit the spittoon, the floor or the stove. They also would come and wash, using up the water which I had to pump and carry, and dirtying up the towels I had hung up for my guests. AAfter I had been in the hotel awhile I got tired of this so I printed a sign, with big Roman letters, saying "No Room for Loafers." By keeping up this card and sticking to the text I got rid of a good many of them.
WV. H. D. Ludlow was another early pioneer. He came with his parents in the spring of 1856 and settled on the east bank of Rock Creek. An early settler I want to mention is Abraham Turner. He and his brother Ike entered land here in 1854. They built a story and a half log house and the next spring broke prairie and raised a good crop of sod corn, watermelons, muskmelons and pumpkins. Among other old settlers were Horner Brown and John G. Stanton and wife. They came to this county in 1854 and made this vicinity their home during their whole life. William Rolph came here in the spring of 1856. Royal Perkins was another. Then F. S. Boynton and George Hayzlett. John McChane settled in Spring Creek Township in 1856. John Bailey also made
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settlement in this township. Simon Tedford, Daniel Teeters, Peter VanSchoick and wife, John Ashe, B. S. Stanton, Thomas Bunton, Andrew Clark, John How- rey, Martin Hock, John F. Moulton, R. J. McQuilkin, John McQuilkin, John R. Stebbins, Dr. Jesse Oren, Matthew Clark, Jacob Woodley, John Cotton, John King, Henry Unger, Edward Quackenbush, F. J. Sefton, Jackson King, James F. Camp, William H. Abbott, Thomas Lucas, Andrew Southerland, Damon Mott, Seth P. Cooper, Henry Koch were other early settlers of La Porte and vicinity. Joseph Roszel, Charles H. Pray, William Goodwin, Woodbury Knowles also settled here in an early day.
In the old pioneer days of 1854 and 1855 it was quite a conundrum with the emigrant and settler in this locality to get his bearings and keep them, and know where to trade and what point was most likely to make a town. For at that time there were four townsites all within a few miles of each other.
There were: La Porte City on the east bank of Big Creek, Ottawa on the west bank, Florence one mile farther west on Big Creek, and Brooklyn on Rock Creek some two miles southeast of La Porte. At the last named place they were erecting a sawmill and the place was named after the owner of the mill. Now here were four locations, all with good water power and all nice places for a town or village, and sometimes it was a question among us pioneers which place would survive as a town. In those days the most need we had of a town was a place to get our grist ground and our breaking plows sharpened.
Florence City commenced to put in her dam and that was considered much against La Porte and Ottawa as we could not build a dam without injuring the water power of Florence. Here was trouble for us; our power and mill site we considered formed one of our greatest attractions for a town and to start a place of trade. But just about this time the state road from Cedar Rapids to Cedar Falls was being surveyed and this added interest to the fight going on between Florence and La Porte, for it was generally admitted that whichever place got the state road would be the future town. Doc Wasson was to be informed by friends at Vinton when the surveyors reached that point. This was done and down went the doctor to get acquainted with the surveying party and to lobby for La Porte. The most direct and possibly the best way for the road to go was by Florence City, as it would have shortened the road between Vinton and Cedar Falls by several miles. But Doc got acquainted with Mr. Field, the boss of the surveying party, as well as with the rest, and made himself generally agreeable and besides had his Vinton friends helping him. The fact is that Doc found out that the surveying party had a particular liking for good whiskey and he told them that when they reached Mt. Auburn they would find a pole planted with a flag waving from it and that this would give them a point on the bank of Big Creek to which he would like the road to run and that at the foot of the flag pole at Mt. Auburn they would find a jug of the best whiskey money would buy and another jug when they got to Big Creek, and he kept his word and this assured the future success of La Porte, for the state road which was run out of line in order to strike a jug of whiskey is now the main street of La Porte City. By this road the town of La Porte was platted.
La Porte had to raise $10,000 to get that road through here and I just want to tell the good people of today that it was a mighty big task for the poor
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little town to raise this amount of money. Further, they wanted to get the right of way and this was a difficult task with some of the farmers.
But the mill site fight continued just the same and made a regular battlefield of this locality while it was raging. Lewis Turner and G. A. Knowles, who was the founder and owner of Florence City, became the leading parties to the controversy, whether Ottawa or Florence should have the water power. But Doc Wasson, seeing a big law suit in view and lots of trouble, and knowing that we needed a mill site badly, got up a sort of syndicate and sent back to La Porte, Indiana, and had John A. and James .\. Fosdick and Aaron White come out and put up a thirty-horse power steam sawmill, and later to make the com- pany stronger John Shawver was taken in as a partner. It was not long until the plant was billed to lowa City, that being at the time the capital of the state and the nearest railroad point to La Porte. The stuff was teamed from there and work was started erecting the mill. The main building was 70 by 20 feet on the ground and two stories high, with engine and tank room attached. The company also intended putting in a flouring mill in the same building.
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