USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 37
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Mr. Turner came up from Cedar Rapids with a gang of carpenters, . stone masons and brick makers, and opened up his stone quarry and built a large lime kiln, and now it was noise and bustle all around. Soon he had his sawmill erected and in operation and his general store had started business. But while Turner was putting up his buildings, Knowles was also improving his property at Florence City. Among his improvements he set out a large number of fruit trees close to the river bank. Now in those days in Iowa we had no law to protect water power as at present and if a man having a water power was unfor- tunate enough to overflow his neighbor's land he could be sued for damages. So. Knowles set his orchard on the bank of the creek and when Turner put in his dam it raised the water in portions of Knowles' orchard and then, of course. Knowles sued Turner for damages. Ever after these two men made good picking for the lawyers, for if it was not one thing it was another. And this was the way La Porte made its start. The state road, sawmills and general stores settled the question. In a little while the nearby towns dropped out of sight and even their names were forgotten.
Just before the Civil war times there was a man named George Brainard from Davenport, who used to run a four-horse tobacco wagon through the country on regular trips. He was a strong advocate of James Buchanan and I might say a southern sympathizer. His favorite paper was the Dubuque Herald, which at that time was edited by one Mahoney, a radical democrat. Brainard always carried copies of this paper with him and he used to attempt to read them in the hotel barroom. Many times in the hotel office he and Jesse Wasson would get into an argument which almost came to blows. It so hap- pened that one day he drove up to the hotel and throwing the lines to his groom came into the office, his pockets bulging out with newspapers and among them his favorite Herald. Ile sat himself down by the stove and began to read, pre- paring himself for one of his big copperhead arguments. On that same day a company of the Thirty-first lowa Volunteers, which was raised in La Porte, was expecting to get marching orders any moment and was having sort of a farewell blow-out. We had raised a big flag pole across from the hotel and the ladies of the town and country had made a beautiful flag in memory of their
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dear ones who were about to go to the front. The flag was flung to the breeze and the soldiers marched around it singing Dixie.
Soon after Brainard arrived in town Charles Turner came into the office. He was acquainted with Brainard and noticed him sitting there reading the Dubuque Herald. I forgot to say that just previous to this time it had been voted that the Herald should not be read or allowed to circulate in this town. Turner walked out and went over to Hawley Lacey, the second lieutenant of the company, and I noticed them with their heads together and then I knew that there would be trouble. The feeling against copperheads here at that time ran very high and Brainard was looked upon as a copperhead. I went to Lacey. and asked him what the trouble was and I got a short answer and to the point. He told me they had enlisted to fight rebels and that they might as well commence at home as anywhere. I began to plead for Brainard, telling them he was an old man and that they should not pay too much attention to what he said, and they answered me that I had better go off and keep quiet or I might share the same fate as him. The boys were all feeling pretty good and many of them were in liquor. I noticed that some of them had gone down to the ferry and had brought back a rope. I went back to the office and told Brainard that he had better get rid of those Heralds and keep a civil tongue in his head or there' would be trouble. He said it was a free country but I told him it was not just at present and it would not be in a few minutes if he did not behave himself. I pointed out to him Lieutenant Lacey carrying the rope and the crowd following him and told him it looked like business and nobody could tell where it would end. The old man began to get nervous and sprang to his feet. Just then his groom, a fellow named Hall, came in and I told him there was going to be trouble. He offered to go back to the barn and get his horse pistol. I told him he was a d- fool and that in a minute or two there would not be a grease spot left of him if he tried any such foolishness.
The crowd began to move toward the hotel and Brainard went outside and opened the back doors of his tobacco wagon. He took out a box of his best cigars and began to pass them around. Some of the fellows took the cigars and others refused to smoke with him. By this time the street was full of people and there stood Lacey with the rope ready to lasso him any time. He said : "You are a traitor to your country and disloyal to the Union. This company has enlisted for three years to fight traitors and we mean to do that wherever we meet them, here or in the South."
By this time Brainard began to realize that he was treading on dangerous ground and he made the speech of his life. He said he was not disloyal to the Union nor a southern sympathizer, and while he was talking he tore the Dubuque Herald into shreds, shaking all the time like a man with the palsy. He made a great talk about the flag his ancestors fought under and told the crowd that if they were going to take his life that he had but one request to make -- that the stars and stripes should be his winding sheet. He told how his firm at Daven- port gave the soldiers all the tobacco they wanted free of cost. Well, that sort of softened the crowd and they made up their minds not to hang him if he would take the oath of allegiance. And then George Bishop was called upon to draw up the oath. It bound him never to utter a treasonable word nor to abuse Abe Lincoln nor read or distribute the Dubuque Herald. Brainard was glad to
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sign it and escape. But the boys would not let him leave town that night. He had to stay over at their expense and have a good time with them. I found out afterwards that he and his groom were stopped as they were riding out of Vinton and made to take off their hats and give three cheers for Abe Lincoln and the Union, much against their will.
I remember the Christmas of 1855 when we were all glad to stay in our humble shanties and felt very thankful that we even had a place to partially pro- tect us from the fierce blizzards and snow storms which had set in the last of November and continued through most of the winter. The suffering of man and beast that winter was something awful and the winter of 1856 was not much better. About Christmas we would gather at each other's houses and eat our prairie chickens and rabbit stews. The people were generally poor and it did not take much to satisfy them.
We had no hall, but in the fall of 1857 we finished building the saw mill and it gave us a pretty good place for amusements. It was finished for New Year's of 1858 and it was given out the new Saw Mill Hall would be opened on New Year's night for a social dance and all from far and near were invited to come along and bring their basket suppers with them. The dance was free and it was a great success. The music was supplied by John Perkins and Riley Moultrie.
In the summer of 1858 Doc Wasson's department store was converted into a schoolhouse. It stood on the spot where the Progress-Review is now located. It was also our meeting house and city hall and on Christmas Day, 1858, the first Christmas tree ever in La Porte was put up in that building. I remember well the getting of that tree. It was a beautiful little cedar with many branches, about twelve feet high, and as our schoolhouse ceiling was only nine feet high we had quite a time getting it up, but we bent down the branches and tacked them to the ceiling. While we were doing this the ladies were busy making wreaths to decorate the room.
The Christmas of 1859 was celebrated by a goodly number from town and country. They gathered at the invitation of the proprietor of the City Hotel. afterwards called the National Hotel, the proprietor being myself. By 8 o'clock the house was full to overflowing. Perkins and Moultrie furnished the music and the dance went on fast and furious. About 9 o'clock it began to snow and never let up until the next morning. But the dance continued until 8 o'clock the next morning, too. Nearly two feet of snow had fallen on a level and Archie Barker, the stage driver, took his stage coach and ran a free bus around town, taking the ladies to their homes. Darius Boyd acted as conductor. Ofttimes the snow was so deep that Darius would carry the ladies in his arms to their doors, but he came to grief. While he was lugging one lady across her dooryard, he suddenly floundered into a hole about three feet deep which had been dug to run slacklime in and which now had filled with snow. To the surprise of the remaining party Darius and his passenger disappeared completely. They were soon rescued, however. A good many of the people did not go home until afternoon, vowing that they had never had such a good time in all their lives. During the day Moultrie was in great demand, playing the "Lost Indian," which was a great favorite. But soon they all had their sleds agoing and with smiling faces and merry songs they ploughed through the deep snow, having spent a merry Christmas in La Porte.
CHAPTER X OTHER TOWNS
HUDSON
The Town of Hudson was surveyed and platted by William L. Miller, deputy county surveyor, on June 15, 1857, and filed for record June 24, 1857. John L. and Mary Alline and Asa Sargeant were the proprietors. It was located on the west half of section 26, township 88, range 14, on the southeast side of Black Hawk Creek, eight miles southwest of Waterloo. The Eldora and Waterloo road ran through the site, a great wagon thoroughfare over which mail stages made trips twice a week.
The first house in the village was constructed in 1852 by Hiram Luddington. He abandoned it and the land was again entered the next year by Adam Shigley. Seth Lake, a Waterloo settler, put up a hotel, G. N. Hall built a residence, Daniel Hall put up a brick house which was used as a hotel, and Frank S. and I. W. Tewksberry built a sawmill on the creek bank which mill was later converted into a grist mill. The postoffice was established at Hudson in 1857 with Lyman Pierce as postmaster and Asa Sargeant as deputy. The deputy carried the mail from Waterloo once a week. Afterwards a mail route was established for once a week during the first year and then semi-weekly. In 1857 Asa Sargeant built a store building on lot 6, block 14, and kept a small stock of goods. M. M. Taylor built a blacksmith shop the same year.
H. Knorsman was the first stock buyer in Hudson. He was assisted by Charles Burchett. He conducted this business for only a short time. It was continued by W. Sherratt, who also added grain buying. D. B. Washburn was the first lumber and coal dealer. He worked with the Neely-Bryant Company, beginning in 1883. On October 1, 1887, he sold his interest to J. H. Washburn.
In 1861 Amasa Cottrell bought the south half of section 33-88-14. He kept people who were hauling grain from Grundy, Hardin, Marshall and other coun- ties to the City of Waterloo.
During the years between 1864 and 1867 the town and township settled up very rapidly. The Strayers, Cobaughs, Gochnours, Samuel Cain, D. W. Watters, Gillins and S. J. Metz came from the State of Pennsylvania and the Gutknechts from Germany.
The Hudson Savings Bank, organized in 1893, has a present capital stock of $50,000 and deposits amounting to $200,000. F. R. Hollis is president ; James Loonan, vice president ; C. W. Bedford, cashier, and J. W. McClusky.
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GILBERTVILLE
The Town of Gilbertville was surveyed and platted by John W. Holmes on July 2, 1856. John Chambaud and John Felton were the proprietors. These men had great dreams of the future town and had platted on the scale of a large city. Chambaud took his plat abroad in the land, particularly to Dubuque, and advertised lots for sale. He sold quite a number and secured cash for them, but when the investors came to Gilbertville and found the bit of a village in the sand hills they were quite taken back. Some of the land around the town is yet owned by these buyers, who have never returned. For a few years the town had a reasonably rapid growth. Chambaud, Kammon and Fagan opened a general store and Nicholas Bowden also opened up a store. John Snyder had the first blacksmith shop. John Eickelberg had a wagon shop soon after and Peter Felton in 1857 started a steam sawmill on the Cedar bottom. The flood of 1858 covered his mill with the exception of the top of the smoke stack and then he moved it to the center of the public square, where the lake was represented on the plat, and had a well dug in order to get water. In the carly settlement of the town there existed a brewery and a tannery but these soon were abandoned.
The following story has to do with the town :
N. E. Brown, of Cedar Rapids, in writing of the carly days on the Cedar and of Frenchtown, now Gilbertville, says:
"Frenchtown was a settlement of Canadian French and is still in existence. At one time every building in the town was of stone and this may still be the case (although it is not). This story told me by one of the early settlers may be interesting as showing one phase of life at that time, that is, in the early '50s. While still a lad the narrator passed a night at the hotel in Frenchtown. It was of stone, two stories and of good size. Going into the room used as an office and general meeting place for the town folk, he noticed in one corner of the room a rather large sized stone vessel and some tin cups on a plank platform resting upon a carpenter's trestle. Occasionally one of the loungers would fill a cup from the barrel and drink. Another would fill his pipe from the vessel, return to his seat and smoke. This was continued throughout the evening. Next morning he learned that the barrel contained whiskey, the vessel tobacco, and both were as free as light and air to the visitors."
DUNKERTON
This town is located in the southwestern part of Lester Township. It was surveyed and platted by John Ball, county surveyor, in October, 1886, and the plat was filed for record on October 19th of the same year. It was laid out on the lands of James and Thomas Dunkerton, the proprietors, in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter and the southwest quarter of the southeast quar- ter of section 29, township 90, and range II. It was made a station on the "Diagonal" Railroad, now the Chicago Great Western, and immediately became a good and convenient trading point for the farmers in the surrounding country.
The population of the village of this date is about three hundred people.
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The First National Bank of Dunkerton, organized in 1903, has a present capital stock of $40,000 ; surplus, $20,000; and deposits, $200,000. T. F. Jordan is president; Frank Wettengel, vice president; A. N. Jordan, cashier ; R. W. Wettengel, assistant cashier.
WASHBURN
The plat of the Town of Washburn was laid out and filed for record on March 13, 1880. It was thought when the town was platted that it would cause the demise of Gilbertville, located on the opposite side of Cedar River, three miles distant and off the railroad. This was the case in the early days of Wash- burn's existence, the railroad drawing trade to that place. With the presence of the Cedar Valley Line interurban at Gilbertville this state of affairs has changed. Gilbertville has a splendid trade now, considering the size of the town.
CEDAR VALLEY
This is a town which has lived and died. It was located on Miller's Creek, three miles south of Washburn. Removal of the Rock Island station to Wash- burn completely killed the place.
OTHER TOWNS
The Village of Raymond is located on the Illinois Central Railroad, six miles east of Waterloo. It was surveyed by John Ball for Edward E. McStay, pro- prietor. April II, 1866, and the plat was filed for record January 14, 1867. In 1860 Edmund Miller built a house and an elevator, the first building in the place. Later Mr. Chafee built and opened the first store in 1865. A small frame school- house was built in 1866. There is little in the town at present but a general store and a few residences.
Emert or Dewar is a postoffice town located five miles northeast of Waterloo on the Chicago Great Western Railroad. It was surveyed and platted by John Ball in October. 1880, on the property of John Emert and his wife. The plat was filed January 17, 1888.
Winslow is another town in Union Township, on the Rock Island Railroad.
Benson, Glasgow and Voorhies are other very small villages in the county. The first is in Cedar Falls Township, the second in Mount Vernon Township and the last in Lincoln Township.
Ottawa was a village which existed adjacent to La Porte City, but which was absorbed by the latter. Brooklyn, on the Black Hawk and Benton line, was surveyed in 1860, but this is all that ever happened in connection with the name. Cedar City is another surveyed in 1856, but which afterward was lost in Cedar Falls. Warren, located in Spring Creek Township, had a plat filed in 1856 and now is occupied by a tract of crop land. Finchford in the same township was surveyed in June, 1869, but all that remains is a church. Florence City on the Cedar River expired in its inception. Greenville of Spring Creek also had an ephemeral existence.
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The Town of Barclay, located in Barclay Township 312 miles north and a little west of Jesup, had a good start before the construction of the Illinois Central. There were several stores, two hotels, a blacksmith shop, drug store and jewelry store and two physicians. The first resident of the town was James Barclay and he had planned great things for his village. When the railroad asked Barclay for right of way and a little assistance he flatly refused and thereby lost his town, for the road ran several miles south through Jesup and Barclay withered away and vanished.
CHAPTER XI
HISTORY OF EDUCATION
As the home of modern public school system, religious schools, private schools, and a state institution, Black Hawk County is perhaps the leading county of Iowa in education and educational facilities. Larger universities there are, but taking the whole school system into account the county's resources are great. Next to religion, education first occupied the minds of the early settlers. The first schools were crude and inadequate, it is true, but the motif was there, even when the scholar learned the rudiments of the three Rs at the mother's knee.
THE FIRST SCHOOLS
Of the beginnings of education in the county the early records are very quiet. The General Assembly of Iowa passed their act for public instruction in , the state in 1856. Also the office of county superintendent was created at the same time. Truman Steed was the first county superintendent of Black Hawk County and he issued the first teacher's certificate in April, 1858, to C. J. Alton. The first county teachers' institute was held at Cedar Falls on October 8, 1860, and was conducted by J. L. Enos of Cedar Rapids.
The first schoolhouse in the county was probably at Cedar Falls; a small, log house where Mrs. A. J. Taylor taught a class of six pupils in the summer of 1846. It was a private subscription school. In 1853 another schoolhouse was built by subscription. E. D. Adams, S. A. Bishop and J. M. Overman were directors. It was built on the corner across Main Street from what is now the Rock Island depot. Graded schools were opened in the autumn of 1865, with G. A. Graves as principal.
Soon after Bennington Township was organized it was divided into four school districts, each containing nine sections. Four houses were built for school purposes. Soon after the districts were changed from four to nine, each com- posed of four sections. The schoolhouses already constructed were moved and new ones added, each as near a district as possible. The last of the four original schoolhouses was sold in 1909 to a farmer.
Records show that the first school conducted in Big Creek Township was in a story and a half building in La Porte City, erected by John Rohlf and W. L. Fox in 1856 in the brush on the east side of Main Street. A few benches were placed on the lower floor and here during the summer the first scholars received their instruction. Hattie Flemming was the teacher. One of the early principals of this school was Walter H. Butler, afterward congressman.
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The first schoolhouse in Black Hawk Township was built during the spring of 1855, seven miles southwest of Waterloo. Miss Asenath Worthington taught the first school during the following summer, receiving Sio a month for her services, which extended to fifteen pupils. The first school district was organized in March, 1855, consisting of the southeast quarter of the township and that part of sections 13 and 14 lying east of Black Hawk Creek. Warren Baldwin was president : A. J. Tapp was treasurer ; and D. N. Ward, secretary. They voted that the first schoolhouse, above mentioned, should be on land owned by Byron Sargeant, at the forks of the road south of his home on section 23, township 88, range 14. They decided this at a special meeting held September 8, 1855, and the following spring the small log house was constructed.
The district was run as an independent district until 1858. After that the township was organized into sub-districts, remaining in that form until 1876, when it was changed into independent districts, there being eight sub-districts at the time. Under the former provisions of the state statutes the township had put up two or three schoolhouses in 87-14, one at the southwest corner of section 4-87-14 called the Rought Schoolhouse, supported by both townships. In June, 1861. 87-14 was set apart from Black Hawk Township and named Lincoln Township by the county supervisors.
The first school in Cedar Township was held in a log house. It stood near the residence of Jeremiah Gay, near Miller's Creek. A brother of Governor Sherman was the teacher. The second schoolhouse was put up on section 10, later called the Bown School. Jerusha Williams was the first pedagogue here and Chauncey Maynard the second. These schoolhouses were very primitive, with clapboards, puncheons, hewn benches, chinked cracks and oil paper windows.
The first schoolhouse erected in Fox Township was on the northwest corner of section 36 in 1856. The building was made of logs and cost the sum of Sto. H. Trawl was the contractor.
The first school in Lester Township was begun in the granary owned by Mr. Owens. This was during the year of 1861. In that year the first schoolhouse was erected on George Owen's farm, the house being of the typical pioneer type. Other settlements forming more school districts were established and small buildings erected in which to hold the classes. In 1871 seven commodious frame buildings were erected to supplant the log structures in use before. Later it was discovered that the school districts were irregular and not convenient for all pupils, as they were located at great distances from some homes. The people residing near a schoolhouse commanded the votes which might be cast and thus prevented a redistricting of the township. In March, 1888, the redistricting of the township was accomplished and the schoolhouses moved to the center of each district. This led to a great deal of trouble, but the new system stayed and enabled every prospective scholar to attend classes.
The first schoolhouse in Lincoln Township was built on section 4, in 1858 or 1859, and was known as the Rought or Ledbetter School. The second school building was constructed in 1859 on section 24. This, of course, was prior to the time the township was set apart from Black Hawk Township. A Miss Alline taught the first school in the section 4 school in 1859.
The first independent school district in Mount Vernon Township was formed in 1856. Nine sub-districts were organized, but No. 2 was for years incorporated
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with a district in Bremer County, with the schoolhouse on the county line. There are nine independent school districts in Mount Vernon Township, each with its schoolhouse in the center.
The year 1858 saw the beginning of schoolhouse construction in Orange Township. The location of the first schoolhouses was unsatisfactory as settle- ments became thicker and pupils multiplied, and in 1876 until 1878 the houses were relocated. Starting with log structures, it was not long until frame build- ings replaced them, and now efficient brick houses dot the township.
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